Magical Story
by Akatsuki Uchiha fangirl
Summary: Nate, Susan, Ellen, and Tessa are going to Salem School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and what kind of adventure will they get into and why does Ellen have a phoenix name Fawkes. finally finished with year one
1. Chapter 1

_A Magical Story_

_By: Ellen Russell and Susan Thieme_

_**Chapter One: **_**This story was actually performed before a live studio audience…**

On one summer day, in Mystic, Connecticut along a lonely development, two eleven year old girls were sitting on a porch in front of a large brown house. The neighborhood was full of large houses like this one, so the fact that it was large and brown was not at all surprising.

What was surprising was the fact that they were looking so incredibly bored. One of the girls nearly fell asleep because of her boredom. She had blond hair that fell down neatly to her shoulders. She couldn't help but stifle a yawn and stretch.

"Hey, Ellen! Earth to Ellen! Are you in there?" the other girl with reddish brown hair said. She noticed that her friend was falling asleep. "Ellen, you need more patience. Seriously."

Ellen laughed. "Sorry, Susan, it's just that this Brooklyn accent I'm trying out tires me out, you know? What I need is magic."

Ellen stood up and started stretching. She had unusual clothing for an eleven year old: a red over coat splashed with dry mud, a triangular pirate hat (she was going through a phase) and dirty brown boots, along with a tan shirt and pants. Susan remained sitting, combing her reddish brown hair with her long fingers. She was wearing a green v-neck tank top and silver shorts with white tennis shoes. This looked more normal than Ellen's outfit, but Ellen did not mind.

Ellen paced the sidewalk. Finally, she dropped her Brooklyn accent and whined, "Come on! I want to play KOTOR now! Susan, we should have never invited those boys! They're taking way too long!" By KOTOR, we are of course referring to that Star Wars game, _The Knights of the Old Republic_. It's a great game. You could play that game rather than read this book.

All of a sudden, just as Ellen was about to stamp her foot in agitation, two barn owls swooped in front of the two girls. Curiously, there was an envelope attached to each of their beaks.

Susan said, "Well, that was unexpected." Heck yeah it was… "Ellen, they have our names on the cover… 'to Susan, on the porch in front of a large brown house…' and, 'to Ellen, pacing in front of a large brown house'…"

Ellen, who was standing with her mouth open wide (from a yawn, no doubt…) finally said, "What on earth are you talking about Susan?" Yeah, what is she—wait a minute. You just received two envelopes by two owls. Isn't that the least bit strange? A sane person would run screaming out of this story.

But these two eleven year olds didn't appear scared…but rather surprised.

Susan waved the two letters in front of her face and gave Ellen the one with her name on it. Susan had an expression on her face which clearly said, 'Read it yourself.' Ellen took the letter from her hyperactive friend and opened it. She read the letter aloud:

SALEM SCHOOL FOR WITCHES AND WIZARDS

Headmaster: Tim Ditch

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock of the Wizengambot

Dear Miss Russell, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at SALEM WITCHES AND WIZARDS. You will find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl no later than July 31.

Yours Sincerely,

Melinda MylesMelinda Myles, Deputy Headmistress

**UNIFORM**First year students will require: 1. three sets of plain robes (black) 2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar) 4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings) Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags.**COURSE BOOKS**All students should have a copy of each of the following:_The standard Book of Spells_ (Grade 1)by Miranda Goshawk_A History of Magic_ by Bathilda Bagshot_Magical Theory_ by Adalbert Waffling_A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration_ by Emeric Switch_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ by Phyllida Spore_Magical Drafts and Potions_ by Arsenius Jigger_Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ by Newt Scamander_The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection_ by Quentin Trimble**OTHER EQUIPMENT**1 wand1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)1 set of glass or crystal phials1 telescope1 set brass scalesStudents may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a ARE REMINDED THAT FIRTS YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

Ellen looked at her friend, with her dark brown eyes wide open. Susan, on the other hand, was signing the paper to agree to go.

Ellen let out a gasp. "Oh no. Susan, we need to talk about this..."

Susan looked up at her and said, "Ellen, I haven't been completely honest with you. You see, I'm a pure blood witch. I can do magic. It's real. I have known magic all my life; it's why I can't have friends at _my_ house. Now that you're a witch too… well, you can't tell anyone but your parents. Especially Ed and Jake, because if they find out about the wizarding world, the worlds would coincide and who knows what would happen then?"

Okay, if you got a little confused at this moment, Ed and Jake are the boys they were waiting for. In this universe, girls are much better at video games than guys. Or at least Ellen and Susan were better than Jake and Ed, since they were waiting for them.

Why are they taking so long anyway?

Ellen gaped at Susan. A witch?

Ellen always knew that she could be cleverer than Susan. Check out all those quizzes, tests, and essays she got A's on, the ones that Susan usually had B's and C's on! However, they made a great pair because Susan was just the all talk-no-action-girl, and usually had good advice that could top Ellen's in times of crisis. But then again, Susan's favorite sport was fencing… and she was quite undefeatable…

The two friends turned to go inside to the living room to discuss this new power. Apparently, the owls flew away with the envelopes. Good, less of a burden for them.

Ellen was still surprised there was actually magic in the world. She was just kidding! She smiled whenever she thought that. Then she remembered her parents.

"Holy Ra—Susan, what about my parents?" Ellen asked.

"Oh, well, they're still muggles… which makes you muggle-born, I suppose…" Susan answered like it was no problem. If anyone cares, this is a few years after Harry Potter saved the world from Voldemort. It's too bad, considering there aren't many bad guys left now.

"Oh." Ellen's face dropped. Then she asked, "Susan, there isn't a problem with being muggle-born… is there?" Yes there is. There was a whole prejudice about them which basically started the war against Voldemort.

Susan thought about that. After a minute, she smiled and said, "No. there is absolutely nothing wrong with having no magical relatives." Okay… not quite the answer to be expected. What, are you blind girl? There are still a lot of rich snobs out there who still think they're better than muggle-borns!

Susan continued explaining about the world and how it worked, and all the rules there were, and some funny stories involving magic when she was little. All this was interrupted when there was a knock at the door. Ellen's mom's voice came from the next room, saying, "Ellen, Susan, the boys are here!"

Susan hissed under her breath, "Shit!"

She thought, 'hopefully those two blokes didn't hear anything.'

Ellen, meanwhile, called, "Let them in, Mom!"

A tall guy with black hair named Ed, and another equally tall guy with brown hair named Jake entered the room. They both had wide idiotic grins on their faces.

Jake looked at his two best friends and said, feeling awkward, "So… how are you guys? What were you whispering about when we got here?"

Ed laughed. "Yeah… it's like you have a secret… I hope it's not a deadly one that could get us killed!" He and Jake laughed like they had told a great joke or something.

Ellen, remembering what she read in a book, tried not to panic. She remained calm and tried to put a pleasant smile on her face. That wasn't working. This was, after all, a situation that required plenty of panicking. Finally, she decided to snap and say, "What makes you think we were talking about anything important to you? I'll give you a hint. We are GIRLS. We like talking about cute guys who we will get to meet next year in school."

Susan smiled and nodded, hoping that the boys would buy it, but like always the two boys were too stubborn (or too stupid) to believe the lie.

Jake narrowed his eyes and said, "Come on, you can tell us! We're your friends!"

Susan did the only thing she could do before they said something that the two girls would regret later. She said, "We didn't tell you that our parents are making us go to a boarding school… so we won't see you next year… so those cute boys will not include you guys… well, it's not like you guys are cute anyway."

Ellen knew that the boys would believe that story. Maybe they really DON'T know magic exists. In that case, Ellen and Susan should take full advantage of that!

Surprisingly, Ed said, "Whatever. We know there is more to it then that, Susan. You just were giving us the slip!"

Ellen was getting impatient. She wanted to know more about the magical world from Susan but with the boys over, she would have to wait. Susan, on the other hand, just wanted to get to Laci Alley to get her school supplies. Then, of course she would borrow wizarding money from her parents to help Ellen as well, and after that they would shop for neat wizarding things, like candy… She looked at her blond haired friend and knew that she wanted answers from the look on her face. Ellen wasn't type who could stand being left out of the loop.

Susan told the boys to hang on a minute as she grabbed her cell phone and dialed her only pureblood friend: Tessa. Susan walked to a corner of the living room to talk to her. As they talked, Susan finally whispered, "Tess, I finally got my acceptance letter to Salem ! And you know what's weird? My muggle friend, Ellen did as well... I guess she's muggle born now…"

Tessa's charming voice came through on the other line, a little louder than typical people. Her family was also pureblood, and couldn't get the gist of technology like Susan could. Anyway, Tessa said, "Okay…What an odd coincidence." As Susan hung up she noticed that Ellen had just put the letters (the ones that they kept, not the replying ones) in the desk drawers as the boys were trying to wrestle them from her. With that final note, Susan tried to distract the boys by introducing the laptop, a muggle's piece of magic. The four teens started to play KOTOR with no interruptions except when it came to tell Ellen that an enemy was coming…

And like in any story, this piece of foreshadowing came in a dream.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two:**_** In this chapter, the voice of Ed will be played by Barney the Dinosaur…**

That night was a thrilling night indeed. It was filled with the _Knights of the Old Republic_ game for the whole time.

Ellen took control of the computer and played by herself, ignoring the willful demands of Jake and Ed to give them control

"Ellen, can I play?" Jake asked her.

"Sorry, Jake," Ellen denied him the right. "Main characters only."

Susan laughed at something that was on the computer screen. "Playing video games sure beats doing homework," She remarked, "Arithmetic is for losers. Now all I have to do is subtract my character's attack points from the bad guy's defense points… and hey. How do I do that?"

"It's official—you're an idiot." Ellen replied. All four of them laughed, feeling the overall bond of friendship and camaraderie.

At last, it became evening, and it was time for Jake and Ed to leave. The boys packed up their belongings to head back home. Since their belongings were comprised of only video games cheats, it was a fast clean up.

"Well, I guess this is it," Jake told Susan. He gave Susan a quick hug, and shook Ellen's hand before holding the front door open. He turned back to let Ed come along as well.

"_I love you, you love me, we're a happy family_," Ed sang to Susan and Ellen. They laughed and waved good bye to them. Those two guys were very good friends, and would be missed if Ellen and Susan ever went to Salem

When the boys were down the street and out of sight, Ellen offered to Susan a chance to sleep over. Susan accepted, knowing exactly what was on Ellen's mind.

Ellen's room was more often than not bright in the daylight since the walls were all yellow. There were 'Lord of the Rings' posters decorating every wall, and smaller posters of Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean along with them. Susan rolled her eyes as she entered. Ellen was such a geek.

The small room might have had plenty of wall space beside the window, but it had few items in there. There was a bed, a desk and a closet for clothes. There was also one large bookshelf jammed pack with fictions, fantasies, non-fiction, and many other books. The desk itself had plenty of paper covering every inch of its surface.

Ellen sat on her bed and gestured to Susan to set up her sleeping bag which her mom had brought over (by car so as not to attract attention). Ellen decided to get straight to the point. "Okay, Susan, talk to me. We've got to go to Salem in a month. I need my shopping done. You called a mysterious person in the middle of our negotiations with our nosy friends. Who was that person? WHAT IS GOING ON?"

Susan smiled. Yes, she smiled. It pleased her to know that Ellen was acting exactly as she thought she would. "Okay, that was my friend, Tessa. She is a witch like me, and is a pure blood. I was just telling her that I just got my acceptance letter, and that you did too. It is an odd coincidence that you're my friend and classmate now…"

"Right when we were talking to Jake and Ed?" Ellen thundered.

"Well, I could have forgotten at some other time. Be grateful I told her now." Susan shrugged, nonchalantly.

Ellen put her hand to her head. "Okay, that aside now… how am I supposed to find all those things? It's not like I can just walk up to some store and ask for a wand and a cauldron. They'll think I'm mad!"

Susan laughed. Muggle talk, once again. "That's why we have Laci Alley. It's in Downtown Mystic, right by Mystic Pizza. We'll go to my parent's house tomorrow morning, then travel by Floo Powder, then get there and shop. I'll borrow money too, I suppose…" Susan's thought drifted away, and she felt herself drifting into space.

Ellen stared. She was deeply confused. "We'll travel… how?" For an eleven year old, Ellen was pretty well established in the ways of transportation. She had never heard of… whatever Susan just said.

"Floo Powder." Susan answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Bless you," Ellen replied.

Susan sighed. "No… no… you see, we're too young to Apparate, so we'll travel by fire places, which is what Floo Powder is."

"Uh… Okay… I'm going to sleep now…" Ellen yawned. She'd figure everything out in the morning.

And so the girls did go to sleep.

Due to some calculations about some surprised people during suspenseful times, I have concluded to give you some surprises right out.

1. Ellen is having a dream in this segment.

2. Susan is having a dream in this segment.

3. Both are a form of foreshadowing.

In order to keep the element of surprise that some readers know and love, the matter of what kind of foreshadowing will not be discussed.

Ellen dreamt of running in a forest. It was a large primitive forest, so there was no one cutting them down for resources. She was chasing a sofa. A…erm… green chesterfield sofa.

"Why can't I have the typical dreams people in stories have?" Ellen wondered.

Then she exclaimed in her dream, "Holy ra, the sofa's going a different direction! I must follow it!"

Now, it is important to note that she didn't know why any of this was important. In fact, it sounded like baloney. Seriously. It sounded like a dream that a crazy person would tell someone.

None of it made sense—logic was out to lunch. Ellen figured she could just go on with the crazy stuff her brain was making up. Hey, perhaps it'll make sense someday… on a different planet…

The sofa always remained a few yards ahead. "Coat hanger!" She yelled at the sofa. Hey, anything could make sense in this wacky reality.

"Banana peel! Great fire jetpacks flew through the moon!" she giggled. This was by far the best dream she ever had, and she didn't know that it was by far the most important dream.

At last, Ellen found the perfect time to catch the sofa, and prepared to jump. As soon as she landed on the sofa, the scene changed. What was peaceful before was now filled with violence. She was… in her neighborhood. There were houses on fire, and the sky was black with smoke. Battles raged around her, with what looked like wands and guns. Non magical people were fighting the witches and wizards!

Ellen gasped. She had to stop this senseless violence. "Go back to the strange happy place!" she cried.

But wait… there's something on the ground… she looked down and saw a couple, with blood on their shirts, clawing at one another for safety. Ellen recognized the couple as her parents. Her muggle, normal, non-magical, possibly boring parents.

Everything went down hill from there. Before waking up, Ellen could have sworn she saw malicious grins on the faces of Jake and Ed…

Ellen shrieked when she woke up. "Bad… bad, bad, bad, BAD dream…" She gasped for air. She was sweaty and shaking. It may have been from the running in her dream, but it also could have been because of Ed and Jake looking all evil.

She looked down at Susan, and was surprised to find that she was already awake. Susan was cuddled into a fetal position, eyes looking no where in particular. She must have had a bad dream too.

Susan's dream was a little more serious than Ellen's. Well, it was serious all the way through, whereas Ellen only had a serious dream toward the end. Both were definitely creepy, however.

Susan was sitting in close proximity to a peaceful fishpond when all of a sudden the sky became a tempestuous grey. Susan quickly stood up after hearing deep rumblings of laughter. It only got worse until she turned around. The people who were laughing transformed themselves into two young boys: Jake and Ed.

Trying to make out what they were laughing at, Susan concluded that they were laughing at witches and wizards getting slaughtered by muggle weapons. Susan cried. It was just so sad! How could anyone wish such mirthless violence upon other human beings? She didn't understand, and didn't want to.

She tried to move her feet, to get away from that spot, but her feet were stuck. Then, one of the boys—doesn't matter which one—picked up a gun and pointed it at her. Without any hesitation, he fired the weapon. Susan woke up, startled.

And that's how she got into that fetal position Ellen had noticed when she woke up.

"Susan, let's go to Laci Alley," came Ellen's voice from what seemed like miles away. Ellen chose to let Susan compose herself for a while before they headed off to the next adventure.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3**_**: Jake and Ed aren't actually in this chapter. Has anyone seen their agent?**

Susan shook herself. Whoa. How long had she been daydreaming?

She smiled at Ellen and said, "Okay, let's go. But just to warn you there are a few purebloods that don't like muggle-borns like I do. There might be open hostility against you."

Ellen nodded. She wouldn't let herself be frightened of some stupid dream… even if it was strangely lifelike towards the end there. After all, what's the worst that could happen?

"Now, let's fly to my house. First, grab a pinch of this floo powder I brought with me for emergencies. Then, you say, 'Susan's house' or 'Susan's room' right in the flame."

Ellen took a pinch of the weird looking powder and walked to her fireplace in the living room. Then she screamed out the destination, while giving Susan a weird look. A huge green flame swallowed her whole and she disappeared. Susan went in next and called out the destination and walked out of the fireplace with well-practiced grace.

Images flew past in dizzying order. It was hard to figure out where anything was. Finally, after a couple minutes of confusion, there was a bright light at the end and pain crashing down on them…

Ellen still sat on the floor mumbling, "I still don't understand why a simple carpool or taxi ride can't suffice." She rubbed her bottom. "Ouch. This is slightly more painful than that dream I had."

Ellen looked disheveled with her hat crooked on her head. Ellen looked at her friend's room and was surprised to see that it was green with silver stars everywhere. She also had posters of Japanese anime all over her walls (some were moving, if anyone can believe that. Ellen had to blink a couple times before moving on), and a couple Star Wars posters here and there (they were also moving, even though they were supporting a completely different concept…). Plus, there were magazines strewn all across the room with a wide variety of topics. Indeed, most of the magazines involved something about potions, but the bulk of them seemed to be wizard news.

The pictures in the magazines moved just like the posters on the wall.

The question was whether Ellen would get used to this sort of behavior from inanimate objects. She quite liked having solid pictures and solid items. Also, she enjoyed playing 52 pick up with her cards with her own hands, not having a deck of cards do it for her. (There were a couple decks of cards exploding around the room then gathering themselves back together.)

Then she realized that there was a fire place in Susan's room as well. What in the name of sweet Aunt Petunia was a fireplace doing in her friend's room?

However, as quickly as Ellen had realized it, it disappeared. It seems the fireplace was only there for mailing purposes, as well as for traveling.

Susan laughed and said, "Hey, it beats taking the knight bus or flying on brooms. The Knight Bus is too intense for my stomach, and flying on brooms makes us easy to spot by muggles. Come on, I have to talk to my mom for money and then we can go to Mystic Pizza, find the secret room for only wizards, and then shop in Laci Alley."

Ellen got up, tried to imagine what the heck a Knight Bus was, then got off track and started thinking why it was called that. Does it come only at night or something? Or is it a bus driven by people who have been knighted? There was also the prospect of broom flying. Wouldn't flying on a broom be a little too similar to bad wizards and stuff?

Susan cleared her throat.

Ellen smiled and straightened her hat. She then dusted herself off and followed Susan. Going down the stairs, the two girls smelled something good. Ellen asked, "Susan, what is that smell?"

Susan smiled, "It smells like either pancakes or blueberries muffins. I wonder who's coming over. Mom only cooks for guests…"

They made it downstairs and walked into the kitchen. Susan's mom surprised them both when she screamed, "Susan Diane…" She looked from Ellen to Susan the whole time. And with good reason, seeing as the table was setting itself, and the pancake batter was flipping itself.

Susan interrupted, "Mom, don't worry—Ellen and I got our Salem letters. I was just wondering if I could get my key or borrow money from you to pay for the supplies."

Susan's mom let out a breath of relief. She muttered something about muggles and seeing her using magic and Susan's brother bringing in a muggle friend by accident.

She wiped her forehead with a clean napkin, and then reached into her jean pocket and relinquished a small golden key. Ellen eyed it with curiosity. She had never seen such a marvelous design before.

Next, Susan's mom started writing a note to the goblins (this confused Ellen, who was very certain that goblins were mythical creatures) that she had permission to take up to 2,300 galleons each for her and her friend Ellen.

Ellen was grateful. She wasn't sure that seventeen dollars and twenty-three cents would cover her school expenses.

"So, Ellen, is it?" Susan's mom looked up at Ellen for the first time. Well, first time in the house, that is. Ellen had seen Susan's mom loads of times at their Muggle school, SB Butler Elementary School.

"Yeah…" Ellen nodded.

"We have some relatives who are supposed to come over this morning," Susan's mom nodded over to the pancakes, which had now settled on a serving plate and flew to the center of a table. "Seeing as it's nearly eleven thirty, I can safely assume they won't be coming. Would you like to stay with us?"

Ellen grinned. Well, the pancakes and muffins did smell delicious. "Sure!"

When the table was all set, it was covered with many plates of food, including a mound of pancakes, dozens of muffins, neatly laid out bacon, and a glass of orange juice at every seat. Susan's brother, CJ, sat down with them to eat.

"Yeah, I'm starving," he grinned maniacally before loading his plate with breakfast materials. CJ looked very similar to Susan. They had the same mouth and the same color eyes. Also, their faces were the same shape. However, CJ had short brown hair, whereas Susan's hair reached her shoulders. CJ was also similar to a stick, in waist length.

Susan stared. "Didn't you have breakfast this morning?"

"Yeah," CJ nodded his mouth full of pancake.

Ellen gazed at his plate to his mouth. He sure was eating a hell of a lot. And he was like what—eight years old? Something like that?

"Pleasure," Ellen replied. She tried to make it obvious that she was eating with table manners, whereas CJ was not.

This obvious motion went unnoticed by CJ.

"You ready for school, Ellen?" Susan's mom asked pleasantly. She too was eating more politely than CJ.

"Yeah, I guess…" Ellen said. She thought about Salem . She had never been to a boarding school ever. She also had no idea where Salem was…Somewhere in Massachusetts … but where? In the woods? How is it a secret?

Susan's mom put on a kind smile. "Don't worry. You'll be fine. It wasn't so long ago when my husband and I were at school together. We had loads of fun at Salem , and I bet you and Susan will as well."

Susan nodded at that. "Amen!" she lifted her glass of orange juice and took a sip. Personally, Susan couldn't see how Ellen could be nervous about Salem . They had each other. It was a new experience, and Susan knew Ellen liked adventures.

After breakfast, Susan and Ellen left to go to Mystic Pizza, which had an inn for the wizards who want to stay over night in Laci Alley. It was also the secret entrance to the wizard town.

The muggle part of Mystic Pizza did not seem that friendly at all. The waitresses were snobby, and seemed to have too much fun not serving customers. A couple people were sitting at the bar, enjoying a nice stiff drink and having some pleasant conversations with the bartender.

Ellen thought all about this until they came to some stairs, and then into a rest room. After watching Susan flick it to 'occupied' Ellen said sarcastically, "Now what?"

Susan merely picked up a stick which was lying around hitherto unnoticed, and poked at a couple tiles on the wall.

Ellen was confused once again. What on Earth was that supposed to do? Then the tiles rolled outwards to form a sort of archway. Susan grinned at Ellen's confused look and motioned for her to follow, "This is the way. Ellen, welcome to Laci Alley."

Ellen was astounded. She had never expected that to happen. Of course, she wrote about far off places in her stories which she had stocked up in her room… but to actually see something like this… it was amazing.

Susan, on the other hand, kept walking since she had seen Laci Alley so many times that it lost the fascination a long time ago. She didn't spare a second glance at the many different people of witches, wizards, Goblins, and house elves. You see them once, you see them all, was Susan's motto.

Susan grabbed Ellen's wrist to keep her from straying off. Then decided to go to the bank, which was the center business in town. Also, it was probably one of the largest, what with its incredibly tall columns. It also was incredibly white, and practically glowed in the sunlight.

Susan said, "Ellen, Retarch is the most protective bank in the world, now that Gringotts in London was broken into twice, the second time having a bunch of things lost and stolen. It too is run by goblins, which are said to be the greediest creatures in the world. There are also some rumors that dragons guard the treasures in the lowest levels of the banks. I don't want to meet them… anyway; Retarch is the safest place to hide any valuable possession. Well, besides Salem , that is." Susan put her hands in her pockets and looked up at the magnificent building. Ellen shrugged and did the same.

A girl with honey-brown hair passed the two of them and said, "Sue, are you showing muggle-borns your valuable insight of the wizardry world?"

Susan turned around and said, "Tessa, this is my friend, Ellen."

Ellen curtsied. "Pleased to meet you."

Tessa smiled, "I'm Tessa Wright_."_ She decided to join Susan and Ellen on their shopping venture.

The three girls went to get their money. It wasn't as hard as Ellen thought. They walked right in there, asked a goblin, waited a few moments, and got their money at last.

Susan bent over to whisper to just Ellen and Tessa, "They must've changed the rules here. I don't blame them—they have a reputation to keep after all…"

"What did they used to do?" Ellen whispered back.

Tessa was the one to answer this, "Well, you used to be able to take a cart ride all the way down to your vault. Now it appears that the goblins do it for you, to prevent more robberies, I suppose."

"Ah," Ellen said. "Well at least the sun's going to set!" She pointed to the sun randomly.

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Susan snapped.

Next, Susan decided to go get wands since she felt it was the most important to get first.

They entered a small shop. The first thing they saw was a desk. Ahead of that were rows and rows of shelves with narrow boxes. Those must be the wands, Ellen thought.

An old woman with long white hair ducked out from behind her desk. She smiled at the three girls as they entered. Tessa stood back, saying that she already had her wand. It was a hand-me-down from her mother—her mother had just gotten a new one.

The woman greeted Susan and Ellen, and introduced herself as Olivia. "Two young witches! Two young witches! And you must be seeking a wand! Why, young Susan! I remember when your mother and father came in here to buy their very first wands. Nice young people they were!" Susan smiled in acknowledgement.

Ellen didn't know what to say, so she stared at the old woman. Olivia merely turned to her next and said, "I have not seen you before! A muggle-born we have here, don't we? My my!"

Ellen nodded. "Yes, ma'am. But I don't think that is bad or anything…"

"No! Heavens me! It's not bad at all! I was merely pointing it out, that's all. " Olivia laughed. She shuffled off down one of the aisles. Ellen noticed she was limping, though from old age or an injury, she could not tell.

Olivia plucked out two boxes and handed them each to Ellen and Susan. Ellen took out a long elegant looking wand while Susan took out a short stubby wand.

Olivia encouraged them to, "Give it a wave!" Susan did, and a glass vase nearby exploded. Olivia muttered, "No, not the one…" Ellen waved hers, and all the boxes in one of the aisles flew out of their places simultaneously. Olivia shook his head, bewildered.

This time, she went down a couple more aisles, emptying their contents, all the while muttering, "The wand chooses the wizard… but does the wand have to put up such a fuss?" Ellen and Susan tried different wands for what seemed like hours. Ellen didn't think it would ever end when Susan was handed a wand that was 9 and a half inches long and made of rowan wood with unicorn hair in the core. The wand emitted golden sparks as soon as Susan touched it.

"Ah, finally. That would be eleven sickles." Olivia added, awed by Susan's finding. "By the reaction of your wand, I can tell that we can expect many things from you, Ms. Theime. A great deal of things…" After Susan paid her, Olivia turned to Ellen. "Now, to find you a wand…"

"What happens if I can't find a wand?" Ellen asked. She didn't want to lose her opportunity to go to Salem ! She wanted to be different. She did!

"Nonsense. We will find you a wand also, Ms. Russell. Here, try this one." Ellen had to try a great deal more wands than Susan ever did. Right when she was about to lose hope, Ellen was handed what seemed like the very last wand in the store. It was 11 inches long made of holly, with a phoenix feather in its core. When Ellen touched it, there seemed to be sunlight from all around the room

"Interesting, interesting…" Olivia muttered.

"Err… What's interesting?" Ellen asked. She was bewildered and happy that she had at last received a wand.

"It is interesting you should be destined for this wand because phoenixes are indeed very rare finds, and only some can relinquish a feather. I believe I found this feather up towards Canada when I went hiking. It is curious you, a muggle-born, should be destined for this phoenix feathered wand…" Olivia explained. Ellen gaped at her wand. Is it possible she could be the next great wizard? But Susan got golden sparks from her wand. Surely that was more special? Ellen paid for her wand and left the store with Susan and Tessa.

After that, the three young witches decided to go get some other supplies. The cauldrons and the gloves were easy enough to find, and the silver scales. After that, they entered the book store at Ellen's will. "I really want to check out your books! They must be really interesting!" she kept repeating.

Susan merely rolled her eyes.

When they entered the book store, Ellen dashed from bookshelf to bookshelf. She seemed to pick up every book there. Susan and Tessa decided to be rational and collect the books on their booklists. But Susan couldn't resist all the potions books seemingly lying around… and at good prices too!

So Susan got a few extra potions books.

As they lined up to purchase the books, Susan peered down at Ellen's cauldron, which contained all her books.

"_Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_… _Quidditch through the Ages_… Ellen, what do you need these books for?" Susan asked. She picked up the books as she read the titles.

Ellen snatched the books back from Susan. "They looked interesting, okay? And besides, if I'm a muggle-born, I'm going to have some serious competition to try and match magical powers with you guys!"A voice erupted behind them. It was Tessa's mom. Well, Ellen guessed it was because of the resemblance she had to Tessa.

Tessa glanced at her mother, and then looked at Susan. "Sorry, guys. I guess I'll see you at Salem ?" she hurried after her mom.

Ellen and Susan watched her leave the shop. Then, after they purchased their store books, Susan suggested, "Okay… Let's get a pet. It's the only thing left for us…"

Ellen shrugged and followed her friend out the bookshop.

They headed down the alley toward what Susan was confident was the pet shop.

"A wizard pet is a companion for life," a witch happened to be standing where the two young witches entered the room. Ellen grasped onto her cauldron, which contained her books and robes and other items.

Susan piped up and said, "Which one would be the best one for us?" There were rows of animals. Some were squawking owls, and squeaking mice, and mewing cats, and other strange creatures Ellen had never seen before.

"If it's any consolation, the sun will set in a few hours," Ellen suggested. Susan glared at her, before nodding at the witch to continue.

"Judging by the energies you and your wands emit, I can tell what would be perfect for you. Here in the shop, we can find the right companion for anyone, given the time and…patience." The witch continued. Ellen was thoroughly amused by all this. She bought into it right away, and even tipped the witch to get her a good pet.

Susan walked over to one of the snakesuntil she saw a snake that was light green with a dark green diamond "I like this one…" She said.

"10 galleons for every snake, except that one… it's 20 galleons." The witch replied. She turned down another aisle, with Ellen's tip in hand. When Ellen saw her again, the witch was carrying a beautiful red bird. It looked like it was on fire—it was so bright!

"Oh, it's beautiful!" Ellen gasped.

"It's a phoenix. One of the last of its kind…" The old witch explained. The young phoenix cooed in a most majestic manner.

Ellen ended up buying the phoenix. The witch said its name was Fawkes. Ellen thought that was a weird name, but stuck with it. Susan's snake was named Tobias.

After that, the day was pretty uneventful. They completed the rest of their shopping, which consisted of looking at different wizardry items. Ellen was sad that first years were not allowed brooms.

Susan, and Ellen watched the sunset at the end of Laci Alley. It was so pretty, with its vast colors and everything.

"We're going to have a wonderful time at Salem …" Susan was saying, the golden light setting on her skin perfectly, "Me for my family, and you for…"

"Hey look! I was right about the sun!" Ellen pointed to the sunset.

The two young witches were ready to go to Salem , a school in Massachusetts for witches and wizards. That's right. Read on and maybe you'll find out what will happen at this school in America .


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**_**: Actually, I'm not sure what's going to happen in this chapter. Has anyone seen my lawyer?**_

_Luckily, time passed quickly. Ellen and Susan spent the rest of their summer quite luxuriously. Ellen mostly stayed at her own house, perfecting everything she needed for school. She was also reading all her books from cover to cover. They were very interesting, compared to the muggle world she knew._

_Susan usually stayed at her family's house, occasionally going out with Tessa to do things. She didn't think twice about the luggage she had bought in Laci Alley. Things would sort themselves out in time._

_Before long, it was September first and Ellen and Susan were getting aboard the Salem Express, a train located at the New London train station._

_At this moment, Ellen was still a little unnerved about entering through the brick wall next to the ticket station. It was populated by lots of people, and no one noticed when some people disappeared through it. "Walking through walls…" she kept muttering, bewildered at the result: a red steam engine with the golden letters, 'Salem Express.' She shivered suddenly._

"_Come on, El. We need to get a compartment! I heard that the older students like to tease first years by filling up all compartments!" Susan rushed onto the train with all her belongings and her pet snake on her shoulders._

_Ellen thought Susan was over reacting. Older kids aren't all that mean… but Susan was a good friend, and Ellen felt like she had to follow her._

_Fawkes followed close behind. Ellen figured out that he was a pretty clever bird. He could carry remarkably heavy loads and, as she read in one of her books, had special powers—including his ability to be reborn, and many more powers._

_Ellen continued daydreaming like this; absently turning a corner and watching Susan disappear into a compartment. Ellen was about to follow when something caught her eye and made her gasp…_

_Susan was settling down in the small sitting area when Ellen burst into the compartment. She was staring out the window—terrified. Susan looked out the window also and saw Jake and Ed. They looked confused, and yet they were looking for someone…_

"_Susan! We have to get them out!" Ellen shrieked._

"_How? I don't know any spells!" Susan replied, equally unnerved by this sequence of events._

_Ellen looked surprised. "Really? Haven't you started reading your books? I just started… I think I know some spells—but I never had the chance to practice…"_

_Susan shook her head. "Who cares? Do something! They shouldn't be here!"_

_Ellen whipped out her long wand. "Diffindo!" She whispered. Ed's bag ripped, spilling all of his books. Ed bent over and started picking them up, whereas Jake looked around the platform. He was looking for someone, and that in itself was worth a good spine shiver._

"_That's all?" Susan asked presently._

_Ellen shook her head. She had to do something else to get them out. She didn't understand why the other wizards weren't doing anything either. Wouldn't an adult wizard notice?_

_Jake's eyes finally met Ellen's eyes. He grinned and said something to Ed._

_Ellen's heart leapt, while Susan gripped her arm. Without thinking, Ellen raised her wand and pointed it first at Jake, and then at Ed. Finally, the point landed on the books._

"_Wingardium Leviosa!" she waved her wand. One of Ed's books started floating out the barrier. The two boys followed the book, trying to grasp it. They were gone, next they knew._

"_Good thinking!" Susan said. She let go of Ellen's arm and relaxed in her chair. Tobias curled up on her lap._

_Ellen grinned, happy of the compliment, especially from a pureblood. She sat down and started to stroke Fawkes, staring mindlessly out the window._

_Susan started to stare out the window too, watching the train slowly take off. Then, she realized something. Her muggle-born friend had figured out spells not common in first years. This was not at all good considering pride was their best quality, yet Susan felt she had none since she could not produce a simple spell to save their necks. Ellen did._

_Susan tried to forget about that. She had time to catch up anyway. And besides, she still had to tell Ellen about the Houses._

"_Err… Just to tell you, all first years get sorted into different… groups… based on their strongest personalities. My mom told me." Susan explained._

_Ellen turned her head. "Oh? How many groups? What are the groups?" she asked. Her fingers were still caressing Fawkes' feathers._

"_Well, there are four Dorms based on the elements of nature…you know, before science and stuff. They are Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. The Water Dorm has people who are benevolent and adaptive…just like water. The Earth Dorm is for the strong…but gentle types. Just like Mother Nature. The Fire Dorm has its share of intense and ferocious people… and the Air Dorm has its share of peace and harmony. My family has always been with the Fire Dorm. I bet I'll be there too. You better hope so as well." Susan continued._

"_Why?" Ellen asked._

"_Well, I personally think the Fire Dorm is the best one, for reasons I just said. Water and Air Dorms are pusses for being so peaceful. It's actually quite boring. The Earth Dorm is a formidable opponent…when they actually duel… Well, this is all if the person is exactly like the dorm's personality. But we can't all be the same person…and we can't all be the same forever…" Susan explained. "Then there's the whole part where the particular dorm has particular classes…"_

_Ellen had a blank look on her face. She shrugged. Honestly, Ellen didn't care. She just wanted to be different in some way from the average populace. But she also wanted to stay with Susan. Susan was her only guide to the magical world, after all._

_There was snickering outside the door. "Fire Dorm? Wise choice, I guess. It'd certainly focus more on Dark Arts than any other dorm. Dark Arts would be awesome." a boy with poofy red hair poked his head in. He had light gray eyes. He was tall for his age, about the same as Ellen, and she was approaching five feet!_

"_Which Dorm would you want, Quentin?" A girl with short brown hair and blue eyes hidden by her glasses approached. She was about the same height as the boy._

"_I don't know… something that would suit me, hopefully…" Q shrugged. When he was done, he asked the girl, "What about you, Jen? Which Dorm would you choose?"_

_Jen shrugged. "I don't care either. I just want to make friends…"_

"_Err… Excuse me, who are you guys? Are you first years also?" Ellen asked. She stood up to make herself seem taller._

"_I'm Jen, and this is my friend, Q. We've barely met, I know… since I'm a pureblood and he's a muggle-born." Jen explained._

_Ellen turned to Q. "How do you know about the dorms then?"_

_Q laughed. "I spent time at Jen's house after Laci Alley. My family was rather…explosive when they found out I was a wizard… I didn't have anywhere else to go."_

_This made Ellen think about her own family. Of course they know about her school, and what it is, and what she is… but imagine if they hadn't have been as kind as they were? The thought frightened her._

_Susan decided to assert herself. No one else seemed like they were going to do it. "I'm Susan." She held out her hand._

_Jen stared at it. "I know. Your family is well known to my family." She narrowed her eyes._

_Ellen and Q looked back and forth between the two of them. "Jen?" Q asked._

"_Susan?" Ellen asked._

_Susan had a rememory. In the ministry… oh how could she have been so blind! The Paquette family was a well known enemy of the Thiemes. Their family's rivalries could go back hundreds of years! Also, wasn't it the Paquette family who were always selected for the Earth Dorm when Susan's family were always in the Fire Dorm?_

_Susan drew her wand, and Jen followed the same procedure._

_Just as Susan was going to say a simple curse which she had learned from her father, Ellen cut. "Expelliarmus!" she shouted. Surprisingly, this wasn't at Jen. It was at Susan._

_Susan's wand went flying and landed on the seat._

_Q, on the other hand, merely pushed Jen aside so she wouldn't say a spell._

"_Ellen?" Susan asked. She didn't understand—they were friends, weren't they?_

"_You can't just fight each other for no apparent reason! Not for family history, at least. That bitter rivalry you have is from other people in your families, not from each other. You've barely even met!" Ellen stated. She looked around at them, right into their sorry faces and added, "And besides, we have worse problems than that. Salem is a tough school for young witches and wizards learning to control their powers. I suggest we work together."_

_Everyone remained silent after that. Ellen's firm voice still rang in their ears. Even Ellen surprised herself. She wasn't sure she knew all that anyway._

_Fawkes cooed his majestic sing-song note again._

"_Well then, that's settled. We'll work together…" Q was the first to break the silence._

"_Yeah…" Jen nodded. "We can play games here and get to know each other… I guess."_

"_But after we go get food. Excuse us!" Q pulled Jen out of the compartment and down the hall._

_This of course left Ellen and Susan alone. Susan gave Ellen a questionable look, to which Ellen replied, "Sorry, Susan. I couldn't see any other way…"_

"_That's okay, I suppose… But how did you learn all that? We haven't even had our first class! And we weren't even sorted yet!" Susan pointed out. She swooped down and picked up her wand. After examining it for any marks it may have obtained, she placed it back in her pocket._

_Ellen shrugged. "I told you, I read our books…"_

_Susan raised her eyebrows. "All that was in our books for school?"_

"_Well…" Ellen rubbed her arm. Should she tell the real reason?_

_There was a knock at the compartment door before she could even think about it. So, she put matters aside and looked to the door. The food trolley had arrived, pushed by an old wizard._

"_Yes! You really ought to try some of these, Ellen!" Susan rushed to the trolley._

_The two young witches enjoyed the rest of their ride with different wizard sweets and foods. They laughed aloud and thoroughly enjoyed themselves._

_Before either of them knew it, it was night time and the train slowly pulled into Salem station. They had arrived at Salem for Witches and Wizards._


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter 5_: Commercial! What—you didn't think this story would be commercial free, did you? Okay, here it goes…

**ELLEN: This Harry Potter Fanfic is sponsored by Wizard-o's. They're Susan-licious… wait a minute, Susan-licious? Is that even a word?**

**WRITER (off screen): It let's the kids know that they're tasting…**

**ELLEN: Yes, but 'Susan-licious'? Are they supposed to taste like Susan or something?**

**WRITER: Ellen…**

**ELLEN: How exactly do you go about testing something like that? I mean… besides the obvious method.**

**WRITER: Just… say… the line, you amateur.**

**ELLEN: Fine. Wizard-o's. Apparently they're Susan-licious. Now where's my $%ing paycheck?**

**Salem was next to the ocean, as it turned out. The train had pulled into the station, which was a few minutes away from the school. Some how, Salem had maintained its post next to the ocean, but remained hidden from unsuspecting muggles.**

**Ellen figured it was a couple spells woven into the place.**

**Susan and Ellen clambered into a horse-drawn carriage with Tessa. The problem with the carriage was that there were no horses drawing them. It was a very strange feeling.**

**Walking toward their carriage was a young boy, probably a first year as well, whom Susan thought could be the next Neville Longbottom. Susan remembered meeting the famous herbologist Mr. Longbottom at one of the ministry parties her dad took her to every year. One year Longbottom had just visited the U.S. Even though he had quite a reputation ahead of him—known for killing the last of You-Know-Who's horcrux—Susan wasn't particularly impressed by his appearance. Which goes on to say that she wasn't impressed by this kid's appearance either.**

**Susan shook her head out of her thoughts when the carriage started moving. It drove calmly down the dirt path, in the direction of the castle; no horses needed. There were several other carriages around them which had started to move as well. Some children cried out in alarm.**

**Ellen was one of those people. "Wow—Susan! Susan, look! There are no horses, yet the carriage is still MOVING!"**

**Susan decided to ignore her overexcited friend and turned to the kid beside her. He wasn't surprised by the carriage's movements, but did happen to turn a delicate shade of green. Susan smiled and posed the question, "Hey, Nate, how's your father doing?" She remembered meeting Nate at another one of her father's office parties.**

**Nate smiled weakly and said, "The same as always, Susan."**

**Ellen heard there was conversation going on the boat and decided to add in, "Ellen Russell. Pleasure to be of service." Nate bowed his head at her. Ellen liked that. It's too bad she didn't have her red trench coat any more. She would have loved to do something of a curtsy for Nate. But she had wizard's robes, and decided to remain sitting.**

**Tessa introduced herself next, "Tessa Wright."**

**As the four talked, the carriages kept their slow pace. Ellen looked down at the dirt path. There were no hoof prints either. That was a little creepy…**

**Her mind flitting away to different subjects as always, Ellen couldn't help but remember old times at home with her family. She particularly remembered her brother, who was two years younger than her. He was not there the day Ellen got the letter. That was lucky, because he may have been jealous.**

**His name was Tom, and Ellen was a very caring older sister toward him. She remembered one time with him when she took him to the beach.**

"_**Where are we going, big sister?" Tommy had asked. He was about six at the time, making Ellen about eight.**_

"_**To the beach," Ellen replied, still leading him along the sidewalk. "That's what you said you wanted, right?"**_

"_**Actually," Tommy corrected, "I'd much rather be home playing video games."**_

_**Ellen frowned. "We're going to the beach." She stated. She took Tommy's hand and half dragged him forward herself.**_

"_**Ellen, you're the world's best sister," Tommy so cutely said, "Maybe someday you'll go to a wizard school so you can cast spells better than other wizards."**_

_**Ellen blinked. "Sorry, didn't catch that. Your voice is just too high pitched, honestly. When will you hit puberty? Perhaps only a wizard could cure your condition…"**_

"_**I love you, Ellen," Tommy so cutely stated.**_

"_**Nope, I didn't catch that either," Ellen replied, still pulling him forward to the beach.**_

"_**Can we go home now?" Tommy whined.**_

"_**Seriously, stop talking, you dumb broad!" Ellen shouted.**_

**Ellen sighed at the memory. Good times… Now she would go to Wizarding School , where hopefully she'll learn how to give her brother a deeper voice… However, she would settle at simply being better than everyone else.**

**Speaking of being singled out, Susan stood up to readjust her robes. She swore there was something not quite right about the way it was fitting. It was too far to the side… Suddenly, a rather strong wind came and knocked Susan out of the carriage!**

**Ellen leaned over the edge of the carriage, which had neglected to stop, to see if her friend was okay.**

**Something fast, blurry, and honey-brown flew past Ellen and jumped onto the dirt path to help Susan up. "Damn, that kid moves fast," Ellen remarked, after realizing who that was.**

**Tessa pulled Susan up and patted her on the back. They ran over to the carriage, where Ellen and Nate helped them back in.**

"**Hey, I could have done that," Ellen said to Tessa as they settled down.**

**Tessa grinned. "Oh? When were you planning to? You were just staring there for the longest time!"**

**Ellen felt the blood rush to her cheeks. It had been too long since she had last blushed, and she almost forgot the feeling. "Well…err…"**

**Susan sat up and patted Ellen on the shoulder. "Whew. Next time then, El. I'm just glad Tessa was here."**

"**Let's hope there's never a next time," Ellen remarked quite wisely.**

**The four of them happily chatted about that little incident until the group of first years finally arrived near the front gates to Salem .**

**They entered the school through massive doors, which reminded Ellen of a medieval castle. Then they climbed great stone steps up to wide wooden doors, which were smaller than the entrance door, but still pretty big. Ellen guessed it was the Dining Hall, though that may be hopeful thinking on her part.**

**Anyway, a young witch with waist-length brown hair who looked like she was about thirty approached them. "Good evening, first years. My name is Melinda Myles, and I am your deputy headmistress. Before you enter the hall, you should know you will be sorted into four dormitories. These Dorms will serve as your family as long as you stay at Salem . There is the Water Dorm, the Earth Dorm, the Fire Dorm, and the Air Dorm. In a few moments you will pass through these doors and be sorted…" Melinda Myles disappeared through the great doors.**

"**Ooh! This is so exciting, right Susan!" Ellen was practically jumping for joy. Susan laughed along with her.**

**A girl came up behind Ellen. "You think you're so special, don't you, Mudblood? Seeing all the glamour of the magical world?" she sniggered, and some people behind her sniggered as well.**

**Ellen spun around to face this girl. She had dark brown hair and malicious dark eyes. She had a narrow chin and her face was currently twisted into some kind of sneer.**

"**Hey, leave her alone!" Susan stood up. Tessa backed up, shaking her head. She knew who this person was, even if Susan forgot.**

"**Sue, that's Amanda Hale! She…err… she'll have you for this!" Tessa hissed in Susan's ear.**

**Amanda, meanwhile, was looking Susan up and down. "You're a pureblood, aren't you? One of the best magical beings there are, no doubt. You see, Susan, there are some people whom you can trust in this world… and some whom you can't." Amanda added the last bit with a glance at Ellen, whose figure had gone rigid. "I can help you in finding the right friends." Amanda held a hand out to Susan.**

**Susan stared at it. "Thanks, but I think I can determine the right friends for myself, thank you." Amanda dropped her hand, and replaced her expression with one of outright disgust.**

**Before she could say anything, however, Melinda Myles was already back.**

"**If you would, first years, follow me." She motioned for them to follow. They walked in the great hall where they saw the sorting hat on a stool up ahead. There were also rows and rows of students on either side of them.**

"**Thanks, Susan. You were a true friend there…" Ellen was whispering.**

**Susan smiled. "No problem. She didn't seem my type anyway."**

**Tessa shook her head. "Unbelievable. What unbelievable luck you have!" she kept murmuring.**

**Some kids kept looking up at the ceiling. Surprisingly, it matched the night sky outside. Ellen felt it was necessary to quote from her book, "You know," She said to the other first years, not just to Susan and Tessa and Nate, "They made it so that it reflects the sky outside. There are other defensive enchantments, of course, against intruders. Apparently the Salem Witches just wanted to have the same defenses as their mother country. I read all about it in **_**The History of Salem : The truth behind witch hunts**_**…"**

**No one really seemed to be listening. Some people rolled their eyes. Susan kept her attention to the front. The crowd of first years stopped before a three legged stool. Professor Myles was standing next to it. On the stool was a small thing… Ellen couldn't quite see it, and Susan cursed herself for forgetting to ask about this one crucial detail for sorting.**

**Professor Myles picked it up and held it out so everyone could see—the first years in front of her, the teachers behind her, and the older students on either side of the first years.**

**Ellen squinted. 'I can't let Susan know I need glasses…' she thought.**

**Susan glanced at Ellen. 'I think Ellen needs glasses.'**

**The thing glimmered in Professor Myles' hand. It was a ring! It was all a blue sapphire…the base of the ring, and the jewel. There were beads in the center, which were also blue, and decorated around the sapphire. There was a certain glow to the ring as well.**

"**This small thing was made by the very founders of this school… It has charms woven into it by its makers…charms of protection, charms of wisdom… in short; this ring is a very important tool in the lives of Salem University ." Professor Myles explained. "The founding of this school started no later than the sixteenth century by four young women… Adela, Agatha, Diantha, and Gwen. They were all witches whose parents did in fact go to Hogwarts school. They heard all about Hogwarts in far away England , but aspired to make a school of their own in the New World . Therefore, Salem University is built in much the same way as Hogwarts is, with a few exceptions… The specialty in magic. Adela was noblest of them all, and found Mother Nature to be quite peaceful in this land. She created her own group of students who would follow the way of nature in magic. This includes extensive studies in Charms, Potions, and Herbology. Agatha was known to be the wisest and most gentle of them all, but with a ferocious heart. She knew that defense would be necessary in any young student's lives, and made her section of students in the Water Dorm, as Adela was in Earth. Therefore, Agatha devoted her time to teaching her students about the Defense against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, and Potions. Diantha was the most aggressive of the four, and found that with a good offense, there is no need for a defense. She dedicated herself to the Dark Arts, Potions, and Transfigurations. Her students were in the Fire Dorm. Gwen was the most peaceful of them all, and knew that there would be no need for violence, and preached her philosophy through History, Herbology, Charms, and Potions.**

"**Of course the students got their fair share of learning from all the great witches, and this was indeed a time of peace. When the four friends got old, they realized they didn't have anyone to continue their school. And so they made this ring to sort anyone into the dorms, and hire the correct teachers as necessary." She finished. She set the ring back on the stool.**

**Melinda Myles took out a scroll and stood next to the ring on the stool. As she unrolled it she said, "When I call your name, please come fourth and slip on the ring. The ring will then determine, through the four witches' wisdom, which dorm you belong in. Okay… Ali, Si Ed!"**

**A skinny boy with dark hair and dark skin got up to put on the ring. He took it into his hand and examined it. Ellen watched it with intensity as well. She had never heard of a ring with so much power… well, since The Lord of the Rings. But that was just a fairy tale, right?**

**Si Ed gripped the ring and slid it on his finger. To everyone's astonishment, he completely vanished!**

"**No way!" Ellen gasped. "This is too much like The Lord of the Rings."**

**Susan shook her head. "No… it's not evil. It's good."**

**Ellen snorted. "Far as you know…" she muttered. She glanced up at Professor Myles, and noticed that she was holding the scroll up as if she were reading it. Something was appearing on the scroll…**

"**Earth Dorm!" Professor Myles exclaimed. With that, Si Ed reappeared again, holding the ring triumphantly. He put it back on the stool, and ran to the table made out of wood, with vines growing all over it. Ellen thought that was weird, so she examined the rest of the tables.**

**The Water Dorm appeared to have an aquarium type thing for a table. There were fishes INSIDE the thing. Weird.**

**The Fire Dorm had a royal red table cloth on their table, with lit candles lining the middle of it. There were also torches at either end of the table.**

**The Air Dorm was right next to the window, and strangely enough it was the only table with no form of meat to eat. There were fruits, nuts, and vegetables, but no animal meats. In addition, the table shined different colors.**

**Ellen pondered about these strange things.**

**Melinda Myles smiled, and called out, "Alina, Rachel!"**

**A chubby girl with tan skin and black hair approached the ring just as Si Ed had. She slipped it on and disappeared as well.**

"**Water Dorm!" Rachel walked over to the weird aquarium for a table, smiling. It seemed she got what she wanted.**

**A few more names were called, and Ellen started to get nervous. "Susan, which dorm do we want again?" she whispered.**

**Susan shrugged, her full attention given to the ring. "I don't care, Ellen, anything…" She murmured.**

**Ellen looked to Tessa, who had her face in her hands. Ellen shook her head and looked over to try to find Jen and Q. Q was poking at Jen again, but they still looked too busy to bother.**

"**Brewer, Alana!"**

"**Air Dorm!" A girl with blue eyes and short blonde hair grinned as she skipped joyfully to the meatless table. Ellen wondered whether it was mandatory to be vegetarian at that dorm.**

**A few more names were called. Ellen didn't know them so she turned to look around her. Everyone was focused on the ring. Some people did look nervous, and others looked confident. Ellen's attention zoomed back to the ring when she heard the next name.**

"**Hale, Amanda!" Amanda got up, her pride above all else. She marched up to the stool and snatched the ring from its place. She barely got the ring on her finger before Melinda Myles said, "Fire Dorm!" a round of applause came from the Fire table. They were evidently glad to be getting yet another first year to their mix.**

**Meanwhile, Susan started to daydream again. Ellen tried to wave her hand in her face. No use. Susan was gone for now.**

**Nate was finally called up next. He was shaking from head to foot as he approached the stool. Ellen barely heard Professor Myles mutter, "Hm… tough one… yes… Ah, here it is… Water Dorm!" Nate beamed and ran over to the aquarium table, nearly forgetting to put the ring back on the stool first. Susan couldn't help laughing.**

"**Mergelova, Alina!" A tall blond girl with blue eyes got up. She steadily lifted the ring and slipped it on. As usual, she too disappeared. After a time, Professor Myles proclaimed, "Earth Dorm!" cheers came from the Earth table as Alina bounded away from the stool and sat at the table.**

**Ellen's heart was hammering. Susan wasn't paying any attention to Ellen. Tessa still had her face in her hands, in a sort of silent prayer.**

"**O'Hara, Devin!" A tall boy with blond hair came over to the ring and confidently slid it on his index finger. Professor Myles instantly cried, "Water Dorm!" the tall blond smirked as he ran to the table to sit down. He looked overall very happy.**

"**Paquette, Jennifer!" Jen gave a last slap to Q and got up to try on the ring. It took few more moments than everyone else. At last, Professor Myles cried, "Water Dorm!" another water person, Ellen thought. It must be a popular dorm.**

"**Patel, Sarita!" A girl with black hair and dark skin along with black eyes came up next. "Air Dorm!" Professor Myles proclaimed again. Sarita beamed.**

**Ellen was incredibly nervous. R… it was so close to R!**

"**Richards, Ethan!" A short boy with blond hair and glasses came up. "Earth Dorm!"**

**So close...**

"**Russell, Ellen!" Ellen's heart stopped. Or, she thought it did. There was an awkward second in which Ellen thought she couldn't move. At last, her legs miraculously started to walk to the stool. The journey seemed to take forever, though. Everyone's eyes were on her.**

"**You're fine… You're fine. You'll do great…" Ellen muttered under her breath.**

"**Mental, that one…" Tessa said to Susan. Susan couldn't help but agree.**

**Ellen slowly reached for the ring. It was surprisingly light, given that it was covered in large and shiny sapphires. She held out her right index finger and slowly slid the little thing on. There was a sudden explosion of light as soon as the ring was completely on. Ellen couldn't help but feel a tad dizzy. Finally, the images started to settle down around her and behave in an orderly manner.**

**She was in the sky. That's what it looked like. Ellen looked down at the clouds, which she was standing on as if it were a hardwood floor. All around her was a bit of mysterious mist, and above were the bluest skies she had ever seen.**

**Ellen looked up and was surprised to see four elegant women standing before her. One was clad in blue—her dress, her cloak, even her eyes. She also had long wavy blond hair. She smiled and bowed politely. "My name is Agatha." She said. Her voice was so smooth and eerily…magical.**

**Another woman was dressed all in green, though she just had a green tunic and skirt, and blue tights. Her hair was a deep red, and her eyes were green as well. Ellen also thought she saw pointed ears. She too bowed her head politely and said, "My name is Adela."**

**The third woman had a very elegant red dress on. Ellen's eyes were dazed as they tried to follow all the patterns on her breast plate. She had long brown hair and…red eyes? She too bowed her head. "My name is Diantha."**

**And the last woman was clothed all in yellow, but in a priest or monk sort of fashion. She had long yellow baggy pants, and orange slippers. Her belt was merely a red sash tied loosely around her waste, and her shirt was a yellow sleeveless shirt, with a long yellow cloak hanging from her shoulders. Her hair was the only one that was put into a pony tail—a long blond one with strange designs for the hair. Ellen was vaguely reminded of Princess Leia from Star Wars. But that too was fantasy, right?**

**The last woman too bowed her head. "My name is Gwen."**

**Agatha curtsied slightly before continuing her graceful talk. "We are the founders of the school you have been chosen to come to. Here in the after life we are called once a year to come back via the ring you have…"**

**Ellen looked down at it to make sure she was wearing it.**

"…**to choose the dormitories the newest students will got to."**

**Adela continued, "Though we have had to change our talk quite often, which is why we no longer speak in olden English…"**

**Diantha laughed politely. "I can't even remember how to speak in that riddle of a talk!"**

**Gwen folded her arms carefully. "We are here to sort this one into her house, my sisters. We cannot delay her too long, else everyone would get started without her."**

**Diantha waved her hand to dismiss the issue. "Hush, Gwen-daughter-of-air. We were merely explaining the predicament this student is in. She's a muggle born. She needs an explanation."**

**Agatha glared briefly at Diantha. "Careful with your tongue, Diantha, daughter of fire. We three are all older than you, and have much more wisdom in these matters."**

**Diantha bowed her head, but a little snappy and impatiently. "Right, my sisters. I meant no disrespect."**

**Ellen looked at them all. "What…am I…" She started.**

**Adela gave a friendly smile. "You just stand there. We will have to do some research as to what your personality is and which one of us you would better suit…"**

**Agatha raised her fair hand toward Ellen. Water soon started to float around it, as if it came from no where. "…Intelligence, yes…That would be good for Gwen…"**

**Adela raised her fair hand, and vines seemed to sprout from her green sleeve. "But her loyalty would be best for my house, would it not? And the pride…"**

**Diantha raised her hand, and flames soon engulfed it, though it caused her no pain. "But she is courageous and headstrong…a good combination for my house…"**

**Gwen raised her hand, and it was the only one that had no outward display of magic. "But she has a gentle soul, Diantha-daughter-of-fire, and that does not suit your house."**

**Agatha spoke again. "She could be in your house, Gwen, but I feel there is so much more…"**

**Diantha smiled slowly. "Of course, Agatha-daughter-of-water, that is because her heart is like a kernel. Should she be in my house, we would make sure to keep it alive."**

**Adela shook her head. "I feel she would be best with Agatha's house. Who agrees with me?"**

**Gwen put her hand by her side. "I do, my sister."**

**Adela put her hand down and looked at Agatha. Agatha soon put her hand down as well. "Very well. I see no evidence to suggest otherwise."**

**Diantha snarled for a second there before putting down her hand. For some reason, she didn't want Ellen to go into the Water Dorm. "I suppose she would be the best for Agatha."**

**Adela nodded. "Very well. Agatha, why don't you do the honors of informing Miss Myles?"**

"**It would be my honor," Agatha bowed. She created a bowl of water in front of her and drew a circle with her long slender finger in the water. A picture of Professor Myles appeared, to Ellen's astonishment.**

"**Water Dorm," Agatha said.**

**Professor Myles nodded.**

**Agatha turned to Ellen. "I'm glad to have such a gifted student in my dorm. We may yet meet again."**

**Ellen didn't know what to make of this, so she didn't say anything. Agatha snapped her fingers, and Ellen felt another burst of light seemingly attacking her eyes. When the room stopped spinning, she was back next to the stool.**

**Gratefully, Ellen put it back down on the stool and ran over to the aquarium table and sat down next to Devin O'Hara, Jen Paquette, and Nate Longbottom (he was a distant cousin of Neville Longbottom as it turned out).**

**Now it was up to Susan. Before looking at Susan, Ellen saw someone at the head of the teachers table. She assumed that was Tim Ditch, or Professor Ditch. He was wearing purple robes and looked remarkably young—blond hair, blue eyes, and the lot. He couldn't be much older than thirty!**

**The reason why Ellen looked up there was because she felt someone staring at her. Professor Ditch did have both shining blue eyes on her, but raised his glass to her when he saw she was looking.**

**Strange.**

"**Thieme, Susan!" Professor Myles proclaimed. Susan hopped up and practically ran to the stool. She seemed less nervous than Ellen.**

**In just the same manner, Susan too disappeared.**

**When Susan opened her eyes, she was in the same serene sky as Ellen was before her. The same women were standing before her.**

**Diantha was the only one grinning. "A Theime, eh? For thousands of generations, they have always been in my dorm."**

**Agatha peered over at the overly pleased woman. "Now, now, Diantha. We still must evaluate her personality. There may be something different about her."**

**Gwen raised her fair hand. "I see she would be content to go with Diantha. Her family has long wanted her there."**

**Agatha raised her hand, and water formed around it. "Yes, but she is different from her family, can't you see? She shows compassion, where aggression should be…"**

**Adela nodded. "She is loyal as well…and follows a very noble heart."**

**Diantha growled. "But she wants to be with her family."**

**Gwen shook her head. "No, my sister. I think she would like a break from family history…a chance to show her intelligence to the world."**

'**Huh…' Susan thought. She was bewildered. Her whole life she had thought about the Fire Dorm. Her parents kept telling her about its greatness. But now…**

**Agatha looked to Adela. "I feel a strong friendship with the young girl who is in my house, do you not?"**

**Adela nodded. "Yes, Agatha…But she is not of the water type."Agatha agreed. "No. Her heart is strong, like Earth. And her family history is noble, like you. She belongs in the Earth Dorm."**

**Adela smiled. "I will not fail you." She held a rock in midair, and that was where the portal to Miss Myles appeared. "Earth Dorm." She told her.**

**Professor Myles nodded.**

**And with that, Susan too disappeared, back to the dining hall. Susan looked around at Tessa. Tessa looked shocked too because even she had known of Susan's history in the Fire Dorm. What would Susan's mother say now?**

**Susan hurried over to join the Earth Dorm, carefully stepping around the vines. She looked over at Ellen and saw that she too was surprised but still smiling.**

"**Wills, Quentin!" A few minutes later, Professor Myles proclaimed, "Earth Dorm!"**

"**Wright, Tessa!" barely a second later, Professor Myles cried, "Earth Dorm!" as well.**

**Ellen and Susan were very happy that night, despite their circumstances. Ellen couldn't stop thinking about Professor Ditch. Why was he looking at her of all people? This thought brought Ellen back to the day of getting her wand.**

**Susan couldn't stop thinking about her unforeseeable circumstance. "Earth!" She kept proclaiming to Q, and Tessa.**

"**Susan, shut up and eat. You've said that fifty times!" Tessa laughed.**

**Q turned to Tessa. "Your mom should shut up and eat." He said.**

**Tessa replied, "Your face should shut up and stuff itself." They laughed after that.**

**Back at Ellen's table, Ellen was still silently eating. "So, Ellen, could you tell me something about yourself?" Jen asked, trying to get her attention.**

"**Aw, leave her alone. I bet she's still surprised she made it here of all places," Devin replied.**

**Before they knew it, the feast was over. Prefects gathered their first years and led them up to their dormitories where everyone fell asleep in their cozy four poster beds.**

**Ellen was happy because she had Jen in her dorm. And Fawkes stayed there as well. He didn't exactly constitute as an owl, so that was probably why he didn't have to go to the owlery. Before going to bed, Ellen stayed up, petting Fawkes. She could hardly believe she had made it at last to a wizarding school. She had to be dreaming.**

**Susan had Tessa in her dorm. As could be imagined, Susan was feeling very comfortable as well.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**_**: Susan has to admit something right now… "Actually, I DO smoke marijuana. It's goooood stuff…" Please don't hold her accountable for anything unusual that may occur.**_

_The next day, Susan woke up early and headed to the Great Hall for breakfast. Already, she wanted the day to be over. She hated the awkward starts of the first day of classes. Other than that, she generally liked school._

_Ellen, on the other hand, woke up at the same time as Susan, but was delayed in actually reaching the dining hall. This was because she and Jen and Nate took a detour (by accident) and ended up somewhere near the entrance to the school, right by the ocean. There was a strange shirtless man by the beach, so they decided to see what was up. It was clear that he was a fisherman, and part wizard. He never used magic to catch fish, only to clean it and prepare it. He offered to share his fish with Jen, Ellen and Nate._

_After about ten minutes of silently eating the fish for breakfast, Ellen felt it was time to leave._

"_Thanks for sharing the fish with us, Mako," Ellen told the fisherman, while she packed up to go to the Great Hall for the school schedules._

_Mako laughed. "No problem. There's plenty more where that came from!" He waved a long black wand, and all the fish gore was cleaned up, and his cooking utensils were clean. The smell of fish mysteriously remained, for some reason._

"_Well, we should be going now," Ellen waved good bye and pulled Jen along with her. They started the treacherous climb up the unnecessarily long staircase back to the castle._

"_Leaving so soon, are you?" Mako chuckled._

"_What a swell guy," Nate remarked, happy at having a great free breakfast at eight o'clock in the morning._

"_I like the fact that he doesn't wear a shirt," Jen whispered._

_Suddenly, something sharp, long, and silver flew across at them, and stabbed the ground right by Ellen's feet. Ellen screamed and jumped back. She twirled around to face Mako._

"_Did—did you just lob a harpoon at me?" She demanded. She was thankful it wasn't a deadly spell, but isn't it clear that harpoons kill people as well?_

_Mako nodded. "I didn't want you to leave… and I didn't know how to get your attention."_

"_Just ask!" Ellen snapped. "Say, 'Hey, Ellen, could ya stay a little longer?' Don't lob a freakin' harpoon at me! Seriously! That's like the rudest thing ever!"_

"_Hey, Ellen," Mako started, "Could you stay a little longer? Maybe—"_

_Ellen shook her head. "Well it isn't going to work now! Not after you almost skewered me!"_

_Mako stared. "I'm not entirely sure what I should say…"_

_Ellen sighed. "Maybe it would be best if we just left." Jen and Nate couldn't help but agree. They followed Ellen back up to Salem ._

"_No hard feelings about the harpoon incident, right?" Mako called after them._

"_Get bent, you freaky fish guy!" Nate called back._

"_I am not a freaky fish guy!" Mako snapped._

_Nate and Ellen sang, "Mako's a freaky fish guy!" they laughed together as they vanished from Mako's sight._

_Mako looked out at the ocean. "At least you understand me right, ocean?" The waves could be heard crashing against the rocks below the precipice he was standing on, and that was pretty much it, as far as responses go. "Why don't you ever answer me, ocean?"_

_Susan clearly didn't have such an exciting first morning at school. She made it to the Great Hall safe, and sat down at the Earth table. As she sat down and reached for some muffins, her Head of House, Professor Watson, came up to her and gave her the schedule. She looked at it and couldn't help but groan. She couldn't believe her luck! First block she had Herbology with Fire Dorm! Damn, now she'll have to spend every morning with them!_

_Well, at least she had potions with the Water Dorm right afterward. That way, she could brag about her potions abilities to Ellen... _

_She watched everyone else come in to the great hall. Tessa said as she came in, "Why am I not surprised that you are already here?"_

_Susan smirked, but forgot what she was going to say because she saw Ellen enter from the side of the ocean. What was she doing?_

_Ellen entered the Great Hall at this point, followed by Nate and Jen._

"_Man, that Mako is a freaking psycho!" Ellen was saying as she approached the Water table. That was where they gathered their schedules._

"_Yeah," Nate agreed, "It's enough to make you appreciate that Amanda Hale."_

_He glanced at the Earth table and spotted Susan. He nudged Ellen to alert her of his findings._

_Ellen glanced at Susan. She argued with herself whether or not she should tell Susan about Mako. She decided against it in the end. The less known crazy people, the better, she figured._

_She and Nate approached the Earth table._

"_Hey guys," Ellen greeted._

_She vaguely smelled like fish, and Susan couldn't help but wonder why. Ellen continued, "Look what we have today…" Ellen gave Susan the Water Dorm schedule:_

_**9:00- Defense against the Dark Arts with Air Dorm**_

_**10:00- Potions with Earth Dorm**_

_**11:00-12:00- Lunch**_

_**1:00- Charms with Fire Dorm**_

_**2:00- Transfiguration with Fire Dorm**_

_**3:00- History of Magic with Earth Dorm**_

_**4:00- Herbology with Air Dorm**_

_**5:00-6:00- Study Hall, Dinner**_

_**7:00 on- stay in dormitories to study/ sleep**_

"_Huh. That's not too bad," Susan commented._

"_Yeah, but… now that you're in a different dorm, we'll only see each other at ten in the morning and possibly meal times, and then three o'clock in the afternoon…" Ellen complained as she took back her schedule._

_Susan shrugged. "We can schedule more time together on the weekends?"_

_Ellen grinned, accepting that for now._

_When breakfast was over, Tessa and Susan ran to the Herbology classroom while Nate and Ellen walked to Defense Against the Dark Arts._

_**~Split up~**_

Susan and Tessa entered the greenhouses with confidence. Neal Belequa was the professor. He entered the small greenhouse. He was tall and gangly, and had dark brown hair with dark eyes. The manner in which he spoke evoked confidence in both himself and the people who listened to him. "Good morning, class. Today we will be taking notes. Tomorrow, however, we may do an activity…" Professor Belequa introduced.

Susan and Tessa together got out their notebooks. Susan had picked up a couple of muggle pens before she left for school, so she took out some of these as well. Tessa was examining them. "Amazing! You mean you don't have to dip them in ink?" She kept proclaiming.

Susan kept giggling. "Nope, not one bit."

Amanda Hale and her followers, Tiffany Rich and Ryan Crabster, came and sat down by Susan and Tessa. Without Susan and Tessa's knowledge, Amanda was whispering to her two goons, "This seems like a marvelous time to stroke my ego…"

"Oh, please," Amanda was saying to Susan and Tessa now, "Who could possibly be in love with such a stupid little device? I swear, you two disgrace our kind with your love of muggles and mudbloods."

Q and Brian, another member of the Earth Dorm, heard what Amanda Hale was saying.

"I don't think so, Amanda," Q said.

"Yeah, last time I checked, we were in peace with the muggles. And it's a good thing muggleborns exist. Otherwise, you purebloods wouldn't survive. You're already losing members…" Brian explained.

"Don't talk to me, mudblood." Amanda flicked her hand in Brian's face, as if to say, 'whatever!'

Cassie, another friend of Amanda, happened to overhear what Brian said. She whipped out a copy of the wizard newspaper and read, "'Muggle Sighting Near Train'. Read it for yourself, Mudblood." Cassie flicked the newspaper at Brian and Q. She then enjoyed a good laugh with Amanda, Tiffany, and Ryan.

Q caught the newspaper and glared at Cassie. He opened it so Susan, Tessa, and Brian could see.

Susan was stunned. On the front page was a picture of Jake and Ed, looking lost at the train station. "Uh oh," She breathed. Over and over she watched Ed's book float harmlessly out the barrier. They had seen Ellen's spell!

Amanda's party ventured over to the other side of the greenhouse where they completed a few harmless notes about the 'Devil's Snare'.

Lucky, class was soon over and Susan felt herself heading toward the dungeons for the next class.

Meanwhile, Ellen and Nate ventured to their Dark Arts class. Jen was following close behind, of course. In addition, Ethan from the Air Dorm and Devin from the Water Dorm came along as well.

The classroom was large enough to fit both the Dorms with enough space for other activities, like dueling.

Ellen and Nate sat in two desks in the front row. Jen sat on the other side of Ellen, and Devin and Ethan sat behind them.

Ellen thought about being a good student by taking out her books and notebooks first. For some reason, Nate followed her example.

"Ooh, this is exciting! My first DA class!" Jen was saying.

"Imagine how excited I am. I've never seen magic before." Ellen replied.

"But… the newspaper… it had your spell on the front…" Jen said. She took out a newspaper titled, 'The Daily News'. On the cover were Ed and Jake, and as Jen said, Ellen's spells. Ellen wasn't in the picture, thank heavens.

"How do you know that's me?" Ellen asked.

Jen smiled. "You just told me."

Ellen narrowed her eyes.

The professor's office door opened and out came Professor Myles. Ellen beamed. Her Head of House was the first Professor she had for the day.

"Put away your things and take out your wands. We will try a few exercises in the Arts before taking notes." Professor Myles stated.

Ellen happily put away her belongings.

"Now, choose a partner, and quickly! I want to get to the class discussion for today!" Professor Myles ordered next.

Jen and Devin partnered up, along with Ethan and Rachel Alina. This left Ellen and Nate to be partners.

"Partner?" Ellen smiled at Nate.

Nate blushed. "P- Err… err… yes." He stammered.

When everyone was done moving around, Professor Myles spoke again. "Right. First things first. Now we will practice the disarming spell, Expelliarmus. All want you to do is practice the incantation first. Then when you're ready, try it. Pronunciation is key, along with the will to do it. The stronger your will, the more powerful the spell. I will walk around and assist those whom I can. Begin."

Ellen stood a good distance from Nate and pointed her wand. "Ready?" she asked, meaning to taunt him.

Nate pointed his wand at Ellen. "Ready." This time he didn't blush.

"You try first. I already did it." Ellen said.

Nate didn't even flinch. "Prove it." Ellen grinned. Hey, he asked for it.

Looking around the class room, Ellen saw that no one was getting the spell down. They all said the spell and failed to do anything. Jen was able to make Devin get pushed back, but that might have been because he sneezed at the same time.

Ellen smirked. She took a step forward and cried, "Expelliarmus!" Nate's wand flew from his hand and landed before Professor Myles.

"Good, Ms. Russell! This is highly good news because it proves I'm not such a bad teacher after all." Professor Myles gave Nate his wand back. The Air Dorm and Water Dorms alike stared at Ellen in envy. At least, until Professor Myles exclaimed, "10 points to Water!" Now only the Air Dorm looked on with envy.

Nate looked shocked. He gathered his wand and said, "Expelliarmus!" Ellen moved to the side and the spell ricocheted off the wall and hit Professor Myles. She nearly dropped her wand, but caught it back last minute.

"Mr. Longbottom, please take care to aim before you use the spell," was all she said. Nate blushed again. Ellen briefly wondered why he did that so often. Then she decided to help him.

By the end of the class, Nate was able to safely disarm Ellen without hitting anyone else.

Now it was time for potions. Ellen and Nate arrived a few minutes after Susan and Tessa, who were saving seats. They patiently waited for the professor to enter.

Ellen examined the different flasks and vials. Some things were boiling, some things looked incredibly cold, and some things Ellen couldn't quite determine what they were.

The classroom entrance opened. Professor Watson, the Head of the Earth Dorm, entered. He was middle aged and was slightly balding. His robes weren't in the best shape, giving the impression that he didn't care how he looked. He pushed his glasses up as he turned to face the class.

"Good day, class. My name is Professor Watson, as you may know. Today we will be brewing your first potion. I know it is the first day of school, but I want to see how much this class already knows. So, if you could take out your books and cauldrons, please… Your assignment is on the board." Professor Watson waved his wand and directions appeared on the black board. It was an antidote potion.

"Little tough for the first day, don't you think?" Ellen whispered.

"Who cares? At least we can talk now. Ellen did you see--?" Susan started until Ellen interrupted.

"The Daily News? Yeah, I saw. But they caught them and did a memory wipe, right? There's no reason they'll come back again." Ellen explained.

Susan shook her head. "I don't think that will stop them…" She took out her book and started to prep the ingredients.

Ellen took out her book as well. It was already written in—it was how she bought it at the store. When Ellen checked the previous user while she was at home, she saw, "Property of the Spirit Wizard". Still intrigued about it, this book was the answer to all Ellen's problems in the wizarding world. In addition to the potions advise, she learned all sorts of spells from the book. The newest spells were in a different handwriting, suggesting that someone else owned the book for a time. Anyway, the answer for the antidote to most common poisons was to simply, 'shove a bezoar down their throat'.

Oh. Ellen shrugged and held out a bezoar, a small crispy bean-like thing.

Susan leaned over from her potion, which was brewing with a teal color. "Ellen, you can't be serious. This is potions class!"

Ellen nodded. "But this is what my book says!"

Susan gave her a strange look. "What kind of book do you have? It's not in my book…"

Ellen opened the front cover so Susan could see, "Property of the Spirit Wizard."

Susan's eyes widened. "What is that? Is that…hey, you're cheating!" She smiled with excitement.

Ellen raised an eyebrow. "What was it doing in a bookstore?" she asked.

"Oh, who knows? But you're definitely cheating. Give it back to the teacher." Susan demanded before finishing her antidote potion. Professor Watson was walking around, checking other student's cauldrons.

"Err… Nate, I hope you're not trying to do the Blue Billywig potion… otherwise you've gone dreadfully wrong. I'm afraid the potion is supposed to be blue, not orange." Professor Watson sighed, looking mildly disappointed.

Nate stuttered, looked at Ellen, and blushed. "I…"

"No matter. There is still time to make things up." Professor Watson waved vaguely at the cauldron. He moved on. Next he saw was Jen's.

"Not bad, for a Shrink Solution, Ms. Paquette. Five points to the Water Dorm." Professor Watson praised. Jen beamed.

Q, who was right next to her, was looking frantic. His cauldron smelled the worst of all.

Professor Watson winced. "Lighten up on the toad stool, Mr. Wills. You'll get it. There is still time." Q flashed a smile and got back to work.

At last, Professor Watson arrived at Susan's table. "Nice work, Ms. Thieme. I assume this is the antidote for poisonous snakes?"

Susan smiled. "Yes, sir. My mom taught me a couple years ago when my brother was bitten by a snake."

Professor Watson was impressed. "Good work, Susan. Ten points to the Earth Dorm." Susan beamed now.

Professor Watson walked over to Ellen's empty cauldron. "And what do we have here? No potion, Ms. Russell?" He peered down at Ellen.

"Well, sir," Ellen explained, "You asked for how much we know about antidotes. You never commanded us to make a potion," Ellen gestured at the black board. All it said was to find an antidote to the most common poisons. "So, I found an antidote." Ellen held out the bezoar.

Professor Watson gave it a hard stare. He gazed for a long time until at last he burst into laughter. "Bezoar indeed! That would cure most common poisons! I like your cheek, Ms. Russell! Five points to the Water Dorm!" He was still laughing so hard that he was crying. He wiped a tear away and continued his observation of the class.

"Cheater," Susan muttered.

"What?" Ellen was laughing too. It was pretty funny, and the fact that Professor Watson liked that made it even funnier.

"I went through all that hard work to get my points, and you do nothing to get yours. A job well earned!" Susan scoffed.

"Hey, Susan, ouch. I worked hard last class too…" Ellen explained.

"Yeah? Well, what happened to that shy kid I became friends with? If you knew what was right, you would return it!" Susan continued. Ellen stared at her. Was it possible? Susan actually sounded… well, jealous.

The bell rang for them to go to lunch. Susan picked up her belongings quickly and headed to lunch. Ellen, shocked by what she had just seen, fell behind. She was just having a little fun… that's what she always did!

"Ellen, come on! It's time for lunch!" Jen pulled Ellen out of her seat. Ellen gave in. So, Jen and Ellen traveled to lunch.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**_**: Previously, in Chapter 6…**_

_**Susan approached Nate. She had something to tell him. "Nate, I think I'm pregnant… and Jake's the father!"**_

"_**Tessa! Don't leave me!" Ellen shouted after Tessa as she stormed off to class.**_

"_**I'm sorry, Ellen, but it's just not working out between us!" Tessa replied.**_

"_**But I love you!" Ellen called.**_

"_**Nate," Susan confessed to Nate again, "I think I'm pregnant… and Ed's the father!"**_

"_**Mr. Belequa!" Nate yelled at the professor, "So you're the one who shot Tessa!"**_

_**Neal Belequa looked triumphant. "Yes, it was I!" He raised both arms in the air as if he had just scored a touch down.**_

"_**Nate," Susan approached Nate again, "I think I'm pregnant… and Ed's the…"**_

"_**No $%ing way." Nate responded.**_

"_**Okay, I lied about that one," Susan admitted.**_

"_**Yeah? Well, what happened to that shy kid I became friends with? If you knew what was right, you would return it!" Susan continued. Ellen stared at her. Was it possible? Susan actually sounded… well, jealous.**_

"_**This time, Ellen," Amanda Hale was saying, "You don't stand a ghost of a chance!"**_

_**Q approached Nate now. "Nate, I think I'm pregnant… and you're the father!" Q throttled Nate by the collar as he said so.**_

_**And now the thrilling conclusion…**_

_**Wait a minute. Did any of that stuff actually happen?**_

_After her row with Ellen, Susan decided that she was not hungry; nor did she want to see Ellen at lunch. So, she went to Tim Ditch's office. She had been there a couple of times before because her father's job at the ministry required visits to Salem . Her father particularly visited Tim Ditch, the Headmaster for five years._

_Once she got to the well-known pair of gargoyles, she looked at them both and said, "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes."_

_As the gargoyle did move, she couldn't help but smile. She just remembered that Ellen could never get one thing, and she could: parseltongue. She found out she could talk to snakes when she was younger and her dad had gotten the famous Harry Potter to help her control the power. Susan reached the inner door with no troubles. Confidence about her, she said hi to the headmaster and then added, "Sorry for interrupting you..."_

_Tim Ditch waved the matter aside. "Not at all, young Susan. Would you care to join me for lunch? I've just decided to have a sandwich."_

_Susan smiled. "Thank you, headmaster, sir." She sat down across from his desk. He waved his wand and a plate of PB and J sandwiches appeared. Susan took one and nibbled at it._

"_Tell me, Susan," Professor Ditch knew Susan very well because of her father, "Why aren't you with the other students?"_

_Susan slumped her shoulders. "I don't want to be with my friend…she betrayed me…"_

_Professor Ditch didn't show any emotion at that. "Is that so? What has she done that harmed you so?"_

_Susan shook her head. "Well…she has this book…and it's not like our regular books…so she cheated."_

_Professor Ditch smiled. "How can you cheat when you look at a book?"_

_Susan thought about that. "It's not like that at all…"_

"_You know books with spells bounded to them are against school rules, don't you?" Professor Ditch coaxed. "Your friend wouldn't dare break a rule, would she?"_

_Susan regretted coming here. "No, of course not."_

"_Then I do not see the problem," Professor Ditch winked._

_Susan finished her sandwich and said she had better hurry off to her Defense against the Dark Arts class._

_In the Great Hall, Ellen was looking at the Earth table but could not see Susan at all. She could have sworn that Susan came down this way. It was weird not being able to immediately see her._

_Ellen sighed suddenly. "Man, today has been a very trying day. First I nearly got stabbed by a harpoon, became the class know-it-all, got in a fight with Susan, and now I'm feeling really depressed. I hope the rest of my time at Salem isn't so bad."_

_Nate noticed Ellen's problem and said, "If you're trying to find Susan, I suggest the headmaster's office. She and Ditch know each other very well."_

_Ellen blinked. "They are?" That doesn't explain why Ditch was looking at her on the first day._

_Nate nodded. Then he added, "She was trying to find that book for a long time. Imagine her surprise when she saw that you had it all along. Now, she probably locked herself in Ditch's office."_

_Tessa came over and said, "Nate, if anyone asks where Susan is, tell them that she is with the Headmaster. I need to go to the hospital wing for a while and I don't know how long it will be..."_

_As Tessa left for the Hospital Wing, Ellen turned to Nate with a look on her face that said, 'what the hell was that all about?'_

_Nate stayed quiet, not wanting to tell Tessa's secret to his new friend..._

_However, he was worried about Tessa—he knew that she was a werewolf and hoped that Professer Watson had the potion ready…_

_In the Potions office, Susan was watching Professor Watson finishing the wolf bane potion and was just letting it simmer. Susan watched him get up and poured some in a cup and gave it to her. _

"_Get it straight to her, alright?" Professor Watson hissed. He urged her out of his office so he could get ready for his next class._

_Susan knew that it was the night of a full moon and hoped that her friend would be okay. Luckily, being a werewolf nowadays was still much better than in the olden days._

_When lunch was over, Ellen still did not feel like moving._

_Nate nudged Ellen to get up. "Come on, it's charms next… Ellen, get up. We'll see Susan soon. It's the first day of school. What more could she miss? She definitely wouldn't miss History of Magic class, that's for sure…" Nate helped Ellen stand up._

_Together, the two of them entered their Charms class. The teacher's name was Teia Duchnovy. She was of average height with blond hair tied tight into a bun, and had blue eyes. She looked at her prospective students and smiled._

_Ellen felt happy that at least they had a good teacher. However, as she and Nate sat down, Ellen managed to see Amanda Hale sit down not so far away. Ellen decided she hated the idea of having a double block with the Fire Dorm, since they would be together for Transfiguration as well._

"_Good afternoon, class. I am Professor Duchnovy, your Charms teacher," Announced the professor, "Today we shall be studying the levitating spell. Now, it is very useful for young wizards such as you to learn how to levitate objects…"_

_Amanda and her friends laughed quietly. Ellen couldn't help but notice because she heard her name come up in the conversation. Ellen sighed and tried to ignore it._

"_First, I want you to practice the wand movements. Swish and flick," At this moment, Professor Duchnovy took out her wand and exemplified the movement. "We'll practice on feathers for now. Keep in mind that the heavier the object, the more difficult it is to lift. As with any spell, this spell requires concentration."_

_Jen and Devin partnered up together, once again leaving Ellen and Nate together._

_Nate stood up straight and pointed his wand at the feather. "Wingardium Leviosa!" Nothing happened, so he waved his wand repeatedly at the feather._

_Ellen put her hand in front. "Stop, stop, stop. You're going to poke someone's eye out. Besides, you're saying it wrong. It's 'LeviOsa', not 'LeviosaA'…" Ellen corrected._

_Nate raised an eyebrow. Then he said, "If you think you're so smart, why don't you try it?"_

"_Proudly," Ellen straightened her posture and cleared her throat. She spared a glance at the rest of the class first. Amanda was able to make her feather slightly hover over her desk. Now Ellen felt the need to show off. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she swished and flicked as she said the words and the feather obliged to her command. It started to levitate steadily into the air._

_Ellen smirked, and watched her feather levitate; keeping eye contact with it so the spell would not vanish._

"_My, my. Out of all my students I've had, I've never had one to learn that spell so quickly! Congrats, Ms. Russell, and take ten points for the Water Dorm" Professor Duchnovy praised._

_Nate looked appalled now. There was a look of jealousy on his face._

_Turning to Amanda Hale, Ellen heard her talking about her. "Figures that little Mudblood brat would be such a show off…" Amanda was rapidly gossiping with her goons, Tiffany and Ryan._

_Ellen sighed. She knew she couldn't make everyone happy, but it would help if they didn't all try to insult her every chance they got._

_Nate and Ellen soon headed off to their next class, Transfiguration. It was a large classroom with many desks. There were pictures (all moving) that showed people transfiguring other objects or themselves. On the teacher's desk in front of everyone was a large tiger, sleeping. Well, it appeared to be sleeping. Its eyes soon sprung open to observe everyone walk in timidly._

"_What is that doing there…?" Nate whispered to Ellen. Ellen's gaze was frozen on the calm tiger, who in turn stared at her._

'_Gee, I hope tigers don't like fish…' Ellen thought, still smelling fish in her wizard's robes. She bitterly made a vow to herself to not to eat fish with Mako in the morning ever again._

_When the class all sat down and stared at the tiger, it leaped off the desk and transformed into a towering dark man with equally dark hair. His eyes were dark too, and his robes were black. He was the Fire Dorm's Head of House._

"_Good day, first years. I am Professor Vincent. I am the Transfiguration teacher. In this class you shall learn several skills, perhaps even the one I just exemplified," He smiled. Surprisingly, his mouth was a lot like the tiger's mouth; square and wide._

_Everyone seemed excited about learning to become animagus. Amanda's group was clearly the most excited. Professor Vincent interrupted this brief moment of glee, "Unfortunately, that is NEWT level magic. You won't learn it for another six years. Today, however, I want to get right to the lesson. Transforming objects into people or animals. Just notes today, no wands…"_

_Professor Vincent wasn't particularly nice, but he wasn't particularly nasty either. This was surprising, considering he was supposed to be in the Fire Dorm. He didn't even fully stand with Amanda's group._

_Ellen was equally confused. Professor Vincent was showing the same sort of odd respect to her as the headmaster; Professor Ditch, did when she first saw him._

_The class ended with a mountain load of homework._


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8**_**: A Magical Story is a well written production of the magical world setup.**

Susan was rushing down to the hospital wing with the potion in hand. She had to get it to Tessa. When Susan got to her destination, she gave her friend the potion.

She couldn't stay long so she left immediately for her History of Magic class. She completely missed her charms and Transfiguration classes, and didn't plan to miss any more.

Tessa sat back on the bed with her book open, studying. She asked the nurse if she really had to be there at this time.

"NO, you must stay and skip your first classes of school," The nurse, Golden light, replied.

"What a nice nurse," Tessa remarked, still smiling.

Ellen separated from her fellow dorm members and watched the people coming in for History of Magic. She was looking for Susan.

Nate had told her that Susan wouldn't miss this class for the world if she could help it. All her life, Susan had excelled in history class—history of any kind. Ellen briefly wondered how different the History of Magic would be from muggle history.

Sighing, she sat in the back of the class room so she could sleep through the class at least. This was so unlike Ellen and she quietly berated herself for actually wanting to sleep through her first history class.

Susan walked in gracefully and sat in the middle of classroom with Nate at her side. Ellen was surprised. She would have thought Nate would have sat with her. He had been for the rest of their classes…

Ellen tried to scoot forward to listen to their conversation real quickly. Nate was saying, "Did you know that Hogwarts has a ghost for a history teacher?"

Susan snorted, "Yeah, and he's said to be incredibly boring as well! I'm glad I'm here at Salem for that."

Then Nate started to explain to Susan about his day so far. Ellen's name was mentioned several times, but she still couldn't help feeling stabs of jealousy all the while. This confused her because she had no reason to be jealous.

A man of medium height with wild gray hair and equally matching eyes that were hidden behind his thick glasses suddenly strode into the room. "Sorry I'm late, class. It's my first day, and I just took the wrong turn. This school is so big! Did any of you get lost as well?" He started off, quite pleasantly.

Some people chattered their agreement to his question.

"Good, good. I'm not the only one. I am Professor Goldonowicz. The name is on the board," and sure enough, with a flick of his wand, the chalk came to life and wrote his name on the black board, "This is an advanced class, might I remind you. It is of utmost importance that young witches and wizards know our history… we will begin today with the first goblin revolt, starting on page 12…"

Mr. Goldonowicz just jumped into the subject. Ellen scribbled notes furiously. Susan had a laid back look, casually watching Mr. Goldonowicz, but all the while easily keeping her place. She knew what was happening; she loved history this way.

When the class ended, the class dispersed for their last class of the day. The Water Dorm would go to Herbology, but Susan decided to go to the Earth common room.

It was a surprise that no one was noticing how many classes she was skipping. Do her parents even care? Surely someone should give her a detention for this.

Back to the Earth Common room, it was a round room, like that of a tree. Misty sunlight came in through the windows as if it were a forest. There were vines and tree roots all over the dorm, in addition to the comfortable green furniture and a cozy fire place at one side. (or end…whatever it is for a circle.)

Susan was just thinking on the couch when Tobias, her Diamond Head snake, came out from under the couch. He said, "What_ is wrong, Misssstressss?_"

Susan replied in Parseltongue, "_Nothing much… but why couldn't I get Ellen's book? Shouldn't I be the one to have it? It is mysterious, and obviously for a pure blood… Not Ellen…_"

Tobias replied, "_The muggle born is someone of importance. There is a reason for everything, therefore, there is a reason you do not have the book. I do think you rather dessserve it more, Misssstressss."_

Susan sat there, contemplating all the reasons for Ellen to keep this weird book. And not tell her about it. Susan was the one who introduced Ellen to this world—she should be grateful!

Susan shook her head to get her mind off things and started to read the potion chapter for the next week. She couldn't concentrate. Everyone seemed to be thinking Ellen was special. She had the book. She had the Headmaster's attention. She had the teachers' attention…

Susan stood up and exited the common room. She figured she would talk to the potion master, Professor Watson, now.

When she got to the dungeon at long last, she noticed some Fire Dorm members picking on an Air Dorm member in her grade. She couldn't remember the name for her life, but did recognize Amanda among the bullies.

Susan screamed, "Stop! You should be ashamed for picking on another person like that! She is defenseless!"

Amanda turned from the Air Dorm girl, who turned and fled. Amanda's buffoons, Ryan and Tiffany, soon looked at Susan as well. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Susan Thieme, the traitor of the Fire Dorm. Wasn't your whole family in the Fire Dorm? Why are you in Earth, Thieme? The Earth Dorm can't defeat our might!" Amanda and her friends laughed.

Susan gritted her teeth and gripped her wand under her robes. She still held fast. She shouldn't have come. Everyone was probably in their common rooms now, studying. Who was going to help her?

That was it. No one would, and if Amanda decided to turn this all into a duel…

Susan tried to reason with herself. There was no way Amanda could duel. They wouldn't learn the proper rules of one until their second year, right? Or was it until Professor Myles taught them…? Would she teach them this year?

"Well, Thieme? Aren't ya gonna say something?" Amanda called. Her friends kept guffawing.

"I was just thinking if it was right to challenge you to a duel, that's all. I can't think of any rules against it, so I think I will!" Susan retorted.

"You, against all of us?" Amanda smirked, "working all alone?" She laughed now.

"She wouldn't be alone!" a voice called from up the stairs. Someone was approaching from behind Susan. It was Ellen, and she had her wand raised.

"A traitor and a know-it-all… What a great team. You can't defeat us!" Amanda took out her wand, and Ryan and Tiffany did the same.

"You don't know the rules. I do. We can defeat you—together!" Ellen thrust her wand forward and stood next to Susan. Susan smiled; glad to have her friend back at last. It was too long a day… She took out her wand also and pointed it at Amanda.

Amanda was about to utter a spell, but before anything could come out of her mouth, Ellen had shouted, "EXPELLIARMUS!" Amanda's wand flew out of her hand and she simultaneously flew backward and hit the stone wall.

"Nate! Swish and flick!" Ellen shouted behind her. Nate was descending the stairs and pointing his wand at Ryan.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" He called, making the appropriate wand movements. A dislodged stone floated into the air above Ryan and before he could even think to move or look up, the stone came crashing down on his head. It was only the size of a large fist, but still. Rocks hurt. Ryan fell unconscious.

Susan turned to Tiffany. "Expelliarmus!" she said perfectly, and Tiffany's wand flew out of her hand. Tiffany made to pick it up, for she could have since Susan didn't have a strong enough intent to knock her out. Susan pointed her wand at Tiffany's throat. "Don't," she snarled.

"Good work, team," Ellen laughed. She looked around at Amanda, who barely got up and ran away. Ryan's head didn't seem too badly damaged, so he was already coming round. Tiffany slowly picked up her wand, hands raised in the air. She carefully picked up Ryan's arm and heaved him toward their common room, where Amanda had probably headed.

"Thanks," Susan turned to Ellen, who grinned.

"No problem. Listen, Susan, I really am sorry about what happened. It's just a book though, and I was only having a little bit of fun. I'll share with you from now on. We'll do it together…" Ellen offered.

Susan couldn't help but beam. "Okay. That would be great!"

Ellen was relieved. She really hated being on the opposite side of Susan, even if it was for only a few hours. She hoped this wouldn't happen ever again.

Susan was relieved. She felt like a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and she couldn't figure out why it had been so heavy to begin with. Ellen was a valuable friend, and she also hoped she wouldn't have a fight with her ever again.

Nate was tired. It was a long day for him, and it was only his first day. He prayed that everyday here would not be as difficult.

"I've forgotten the reason I came down here! So let's go to sleep," Susan suggested.

Ellen and Nate soon headed back to the Water common room (basically another aquarium, only with water falls instead of a fire place. It was pretty) where they would split up and go to their dorm rooms. Susan decided to get back to her dorm room as well. Perhaps Salem really was going to be fun.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**_**: En el próximo capítulo habrá un partido de deportes. Es muy emocionante y el personaje principal será ganar. No te lo pierdas. Es muy emocionante. Por favor, no llame a la policía.**_

_**I'm sorry, someone put the subtext in Spanish. Hold on a moment while I go yell at them… HEY YOU! You asshole! Yeah! Just because we have a Mexican immigration problem does not mean we need to start writing all our stories to them! Who pays attention to this stuff anyway?**_

_**Okay, back to the chapter…**_

_The rest of the week was actually quite tedious compared to the first day of school. The weeks that followed were filled with classes and homework so that time flew by quickly, it seemed. When a month had passed, there was an exciting new notice on the board in every common room. It said:_

_Quidditch Try Outs_

_**Available evenings after eight on the Quidditch field. First years are reminded they are not allowed a broomstick and therefore cannot participate in the tryouts. However, Madam Porter has agreed to offer up a lesson for first years on flying. The only class will take place in the courtyard on Saturday at precisely one o'clock. This is your only class, so if any first years want to fly at Salem University , this is extremely recommended.**_

Ellen rushed over to Susan's spot at the Earth table. It was Saturday morning and she was bursting with excitement. "Susan, we've got to do this! We've got to learn to fly! Oh that would be fantastic!" She babbled on and on.

Tessa spoke up. "Oh, honestly, Ellen. It's just a meaningless wizarding sport. There's nothing spectacular about it. I'm not going."

"It's something I've never done before!" Ellen complained. She looked at Susan again. "Come on, Susan, you have to come with me!"

Susan laughed. "Okay, okay. I'll come. I want to fly again, anyway. It's been a while since I've flown a broom. When I was eight, my brother and I used to fly around on my dad's brooms. We stayed in the backyard mostly, but it was still fun…" Susan started reminiscing about her past.

Tessa vaguely added that the one time she flew on a broom she fell off and broke her wrist in three places.

Ellen was too hyper to listen to any of this and instead took a brief walk out of doors.

To pass the time, Ellen started doing some of her homework that she had over the weekend. She was doing marvelous in her classes, and simply loved the homework because it was so different from the homework she used to have to do. For example, now her homework consisted of practicing levitating spells, practicing the disarming spell, reading about the people who could transfigure things, reading about history, exploring all the plants in the greenhouse for first years, and so on. In elementary school, where she was just at last year, she would have to do math and spelling and science—all boring activities really. It was great that magic was the answer to everything else.

When it was nearly one o'clock, Ellen went inside, grabbed Susan (who was making a potion in the girl's bathroom which Ellen didn't bother to try to find out what for) and sped toward the courtyard.

The courtyard was a wide place with the school's stone walls surrounding it in a large rectangle. The grass was plenty green and there were broomsticks of no particular value spread out before them.

Nate was in this class, along with sadly, Amanda Hale and her followers. Jen and Q had come along, and Sarita, Alana, and Alina were all there as well.

Madam Porter was a short witch with wild black hair, and an upbeat happy attitude. "All right, everyone, stand on the left side of a broom. Doesn't matter which one! Anyone! Choose!" she commanded with such an unexpectedly strict voice.

Ellen and Susan stood alongside brooms next to each other. Nate's broom was opposite them.

When everyone had settled, Madam Porter barked, "All right, glad to see everyone awake. Now, stick your right hand over your brooms, and say, 'up!' This may take a little time, if your broom is not willing."

The class started to do precisely that and soon the air was filled with shouts of, "Up!" Not everyone was successful.

Ellen put her right hand over her broom, and said quite smartly, "Up!" the broomstick handle flew right to her hand. "Whoa," Ellen breathed.

Susan put her right hand over her broom. She took a breath and said, "Up." Nothing happened. Susan repeated. There was a little movement in her broom, but it refused to get off the ground. Susan realized that she had never commanded a broom to get up before. She had always grabbed it off the floor. So, with a glance at Mrs. Porter, she bent over and picked it up.

Nate also was having a bit of trouble, and did the same as Susan did.

Mrs. Porter looked around as the bulk of the class had brooms in their hands. "Good, now I want everyone to mount their brooms and be ready to kick off. When I count to three, I want everyone to jump up from the ground…"

Everyone shuffled onto their broomsticks. Ellen found it surprisingly natural to do this.

"1…" Mrs. Porter started. "2…" she looked around one last time at everyone. "3!"

Everyone kicked off from the ground. The brooms hovered slightly in the air.

Ellen felt the strangest floating sensation, like gravity had decided to take a sabbatical. But the freedom was wonderful for her, and she loved every minute of it. Soon she was able to control the broom to swerve around a bit.

Mrs. Porter allowed the class to explore on their own a bit before she assigned them their task.

"Susan, check this out!" Ellen called over to her friend. Susan looked at Ellen as she happily did a swoop in the air. Susan was confused—it took her longer to figure out the controls of a broom, and she was pureblood!

"Okay, class! I have a challenge for everyone!" Madam Porter mounted her broom and flew in the air so that she was in the center of the class. "I need everyone's attention! The prize is something you're all going to want—a chance to be on your Dorm's Quidditch team!"

Ellen's attention snapped to Madam Porter now. Susan listened as well, and Nate squeezed his broomstick. He was dreadfully scared of heights and hoped for the end of the class.

"The following positions are open: Earth needs a new keeper! Air needs a new Chaser and Beater! Fire needs a new Seeker! And Water needs a new Seeker! Whoever wins my challenge for you will be the only first year on the Quidditch team! Are you ready?" Madam Porter shouted. Some students flew down to the ground. They didn't want to be on the Quidditch team.

Ellen did. This would be a wonderful new experience, and she was always curious about the game of Quidditch. Nate flew his broom to the ground. No way, he thought. Susan stayed with him, thinking that it would be best to comfort him and his fear of heights.

"All right!" Madam Porter shouted to all that remained: Ellen, Amanda Hale, Quentin Wills, Jen Paquette, Ryan, Tiffany, and Ethan Richards. "The challenge is a quick race around the field. It is not a normal race, there are obstacles as well. These obstacles are very similar to what you may encounter in Quidditch. Only one person may win! Everyone line up!"

Ellen flew her broom to the start up point that Madam Porter flew off to. They were suddenly on the Quidditch field, and the start point was along the side of one of the stands.

Before there was much time to prepare, and gather wits, Madam Porter had blown her whistle. Everyone was off.

Ellen figured out that if she leaned forward, her broom would race even faster.

Next, Ellen pulled past Amanda Hale, who feebly tried to ram her off her broom. Missed. In fact, Amanda rolled off her broom, and was hanging with only one hand.

Ellen tried to look ahead to see who was in the lead. Q was first, followed by Jen, and then Devin, and then Ethan. Wait—she just passed Ethan now, so she herself was in fourth place.

Ellen commanded the broom forward, with all intention she could muster. The broom practically exploded forward, and she found her self neck to neck with Jen. But they were rounding the corner of the Quidditch field, and Ellen knew she should stay on the inside loop. She swerved over to do just that.

Suddenly, Madam Porter's voice boomed above all of them, "I am releasing the bludgers now! A good player would know how to dodge them!"

Ellen marveled at what those things could be. Without Susan beside her, she could hardly guess, but she supposed they would be bad. Onward she flew. The way straightened out, and she was still tied to second. She glanced sideways at Jen. Jen was doing the same and they shared the same determination for a moment to move ahead.

Ellen was slightly disturbed by a gasp from Jen when she looked forward. Ellen looked what Jen was looking at: a black ball hurling at them with infinite speed and strength, it seemed.

Q dodged by flying sharply over the ball, and the ball found its way to Ellen as a result.

Ellen broke hard to the right, so the bludger would pass, but lost her place next to Jen. With a flutter from her heart, she swerved madly back into the race.

Jen had slowed down for some inexplicable reason, leaving the way clear for Ellen to catch up.

Q was flying very well, and he did everything possible to stop Ellen from moving ahead. However, she soon found a way to become equal in the race to him. Their shoulders were touching, and Ellen was eying the prize: the finish line was down below. It would take an incredibly steep dive to reach the line of plastic.

At the same time, Ellen and Q swooped downwards into a dive. Q was a good flyer, and intended to somehow make Ellen afraid of hitting the ground. They flew on, straight toward the ground.

Soon, the pair of them was only feet from the ground. Frightened that Ellen wasn't giving way now, and frightened that they would both simultaneously smash into the ground, Q pulled up. Ellen felt his decision before he had made it, and smiled. No competition at last.

However, there was still that approaching ground to deal with. When she was a foot away, Ellen swiftly pulled her broom up, which obeyed her command easily, and she drifted past the finish line. Madam Porter was waiting, and smiled. Soon everyone had landed beside her.

"Congratulations, Ms. Russell… you have just made the Water team as Seeker. And it's a right choice, I'm thinking…" Madam Porter smiled.

Susan was stunned. Who'd of thought Ellen had it in her to do that!

Susan walked up to the sweating, grinning champion and patted her on the back. "Congrats, Ellen. Don't think this makes a reason for me to cheer for the Water Dorm, though. I still want Earth to win."

Nate came to Ellen as well. "Wow… and you're a… muggleborn… who'd of thought?"

This was without a doubt the happiest day Ellen experienced in a long time.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Chapter 10**_**: Who keeps on throwing around all those jinx spells? It's not funny, you know! Stop it!**

After the flying class, Susan ran quickly to the girl's bathroom to finish the potion. She really didn't want anyone to find out what she was brewing because it could be considered a dark potion. It had Voldemort's doings written all over it, even if he was both before her time and in a different country.

Damn. She had better not say his name again. Before the Dark Lord fell, her family was one of the unsure followers. Unsure meant they knew he was wrong, but they didn't want to cross him. Wise choice, as far as Susan was concerned. He-who-must-not-be-named was still widely discussed, and she was afraid of ever using his name again.

Anyway, back to the matters of the potion, Susan had made sure that no one had followed her as she put in the last few ingredients and watched the cauldron simmer for ten minutes. She couldn't remember why she wanted to make this potion since she couldn't even remember the name. All she knew was that it was suppose to be a very dangerous potion if it was messed up. When she finished, she bottled up the potion and put it in her pocket to show Watson later.

After flying lessons, Ellen saw Tessa and said, "Tessa—you've been friends with Susan for a long time right? I was just wondering… what does she enjoy doing so much that remains somewhat hidden from me? She doesn't seem at all herself. At least, not what I remember about her…"

Tessa merely replied, "Ellen… it's just that Susan enjoys potions too much. She's obsessed."

Ellen smiled but still didn't completely understand her friend. She knew that the only way she would understand Susan was either talk to Susan—which didn't seem like an option… or talk to Nate. So with that note, she went to find Nate.

Nate was in the greenhouse talking with Professor Belequa when Ellen found him. Professor Belequa also knew Susan very well from her childhood before.

Nate was saying, "What is wrong with Susan? She's been acting so strange lately." Ellen didn't notice that.

Professor Belequa said, "Nate, remember when she said that she would be different next year and she would have to take a potion? I think it had to do with when she was kidnapped two years ago."

Nate said, "I can't believe that it had been two years since she was kidnapped by vampires. That must have given her parents a fright…I heard her dad went and sent half the American members of the Ministry of Magic out to get her."

Professor Belequa noddedHEH and continued, "Well, as you know, she was bitten by one of the vampires… You should read Gildroy Lockehart's book. He wrote about it, you know."

Nate blinked. "Wasn't he a proven fake?"

Professor Belequa nodded. "Yes, but the facts are right. Anyway, she was wanted by the vampires for a blood. They tried to take a little of her blood, but they didn't completely succeed because that was when Harry and his friends stepped in. Since they half succeeded, however, Susan is what people call a Sunwalker. As you know, there are three types of vampires: pure vampires; they drink blood and can't stand the sun. These are the ones Susan was captured by as a young girl. Then you have the half vampires who drink blood and like the sun, but don't drink enough blood to change into a bat. The third type consist of Sunwalkers; they are bitten but don't drink enough blood to change into a bat, and they like the sun, and they don't need to drink blood on a daily basis and can take a potion instead of blood."

Nate nodded. That made sense. Ellen continued to go unnoticed, and Nate continued his questions, "So Susan is a Sunwalker now."

'_I $%ing knew it!'_ Ellen thought. Oh, and she was also dazed her best friend was a vampire. She phrased a question to Professor Belequa, "Does that make Susan a dark creature then?"

Professor Belequa looked at Ellen. He didn't look surprised that she was there. As a result, Ellen was surprised. He answered, "No, because the only creature that the Ministry of Magic consider dark in the vampire community is pure and half."

Ellen was awed by this news, if not slightly intimidated of Susan, until Nate addressed Ellen, "Come on, Ellen, let's get out of here."

And so they left together, back to the castle. Ellen tried to restrain her questions from jumping out and forming themselves. Nate, seeing Ellen battle with herself, was thankful.

Susan rushed off to Professor Watson's office for extra lessons in first year potions. She was that good.

Professor Watson was sitting in his chair, looking exhausted still. He was reading a book and looked up as Susan entered. Susan promptly removed from her pocket.

Professor Watson nodded, as if to signal that it was okay, and Susan seized the flask and downed the potion quickly. It was quite well known that Susan liked making potions. But it was quite unknown that she hated taking them herself.

When she was done, Susan made a face and said, "Professor, do all your potions have to taste so bad? I mean, come on. I make potions for my family and can make most of them taste like cherry or strawberries. But this is… this is just ghastly."

Professor Watson laughed. "You can't do that to any of my potions because it will render the potion useless. You know this. I've told you many times. Now you won't have to take that potion again until next week. After that, it should be once every month. Just remember to be in the nurse's office tonight so that you don't wake up your roommates." Susan nodded as she left with a start, worried about tonight.

Nate and Ellen were walking around the grounds when they spotted Tessa wearing a sports bra and shorts. Ellen was about to remark how bizarre and unusual that was when she heard Nate say, "Bloody werewolf would be hot in this weather..."

Ellen was about to ask what he was talking about when she saw Tessa approach them herself. Ellen decided to pose that question to Tessa instead. "Tessa, aren't you cold? It is autumn…"

Tessa shook her head and ran off doing cartwheels and back flips. A little while later, they saw Susan walking toward a large rock. In fact, she disappeared behind it. What was Susan doing over there?

Ellen nudged Nate at this. Nate nudged her back, to which Ellen just did it again. There was a silence of awkward nudging, until Ellen finally said something. "Stop!"

"What? You started it." Nate retorted.

"Because Susan just disappeared behind that rock! Let's follow her…" Ellen replied.

"Well of course Susan disappeared. People do that all the time." Nate was being sarcastic.

Ellen glared at him. "Shut it. I know what I saw." She led him to the rock. As it turned out, there was a large hole about three feet in diameter. Ellen and Nate exchanged looks before jumping down after Susan.

Luckily, there was this warm plant thing at the bottom. Don't worry, it wasn't a Devil's Snare. It really was just a warm comfy plant. There was a door way ahead of them, so they slipped off the plush leaf and headed toward that.

Susan was worried about tonight. She looked at the walls of the hidden room and saw the pictures that Tessa had put up. That was nice of her.

Susan gazed at one photograph of Tessa. "You have the most endurance to change into a werewolf every month… but I don't even have the endurance to be a bloody Sunwalker tonight…"

At this moment, Ellen and Nate stumbled through the door.

As a result, Susan said, "You know you can come in here, Ellen. You too, Nate" Susan continued, "Now, you know what is going on with me. I hope this settles your curiosity, Ellen."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**_**: Previously, on **__**Buffy the Vampire Slayer**_**… Just kidding, it's only A Magical Story.**

Ellen stared for a couple minutes in disbelief. She couldn't tell which was more disbelieving—the day when they found out they were witches, or all this vampire crap.

"You're a vampire?" Ellen decided to ask.

"Daywalker," Nate and Susan decided to point out.

There was a long pause. "So you're a vampire, right?" Ellen continued, undeterred.

Susan sighed. "Ellen, there is a difference between—"

"So you're a vampire, right?" Ellen interrupted.

Susan sighed once more. "Yes. I'm a vampire. Happy?"

Ellen shook her head. "Heck no. You're a vampire. You could suck my blood at any moment. Why should I be happy?"

Good question. Susan couldn't think of an answer, other than, "I wouldn't suck your blood, Ellen. You're my friend. Oh, plus I got a potion I can take once a month, very similar to the werewolf potion." And so she said it. She implied the word, 'friend' heavily, as if it actually meant something.

Ellen actually snorted. "Friendship's got nothing to do with it. It's a degree of control, Susan, same with werewolves, no doubt. You're not attacking Nate and me because you have control over that part at this moment. It has nothing to do with being friends."

Susan wanted to object. But she also didn't want to give another friendship speech. Then she said, "But friendship and love are the most powerful things, and can give you courage and strength to endure." Damn, she screwed up on that one.

Ellen continued to gaze at Susan. She wasn't buying it. Then she decided to speak, "You know, Susan… I decided to believe you when you said we were wizards. I've tried to stick by you all this time. I hated being separated from you… but please. Don't give me this… this… this garbage. Not now. Not when my first Quidditch match is this Saturday, and against the Fire Dorm, no less!"

Nate's eyes rebounded from Ellen to Susan.

"Fine." Susan spoke up, "No more drama. No more truths. Let's get past this school year, and I'll tell you all about the other things in this world."

Ellen smiled. "Agreed." She looked around the small squalid room. "Now, we should probably get out of here…"

Susan let Ellen and Nate get out. She still needed to complete some vampire business, so she stayed behind.

When Ellen and Nate were walking back to the castle, it was nearly 6:50 at night. They had skipped dinner, and Ellen was starving. But she was also rubbing her eyes in exhaustion.

There was too much drama. The world was filled with it. This school was filled with it. Ellen hoped she wouldn't have to encounter too much of it for the rest of the year. She was just eleven, after all.

The only vaguely good news was that today was Friday, so tomorrow was the big match. Ellen had been practicing for weeks now, and she felt she was good enough to win, since the Seeker did pretty much determine the winner of the game.

Forgetting about dinner, Ellen said goodnight to Nate and headed back to the dorm, where she fell asleep peacefully. Tomorrow, she would show the world with her new Firebolt…

The next morning, Susan wasn't down at breakfast. Ellen figured she was just staying up late at the tree. Hopefully, Susan didn't forget about the game…

John, the Water Quidditch captain and Chaser, approached Ellen while she was having a slice of toast. "Ready for our first match?" He grinned, his dark blue eyes shining. He had dark hair as well, and was very tall. Overall, he was very handsome, but he was also in his sixth year here.

Ellen gave him a shaky grin. "I… I don't know…" She stammered.

At this point, John felt it was necessary to give Ellen a pat on the back. "Don't worry, you'll do fine."

"Did you, at your first match?" Ellen asked.

John shook his head. "No… I nearly fell off my broom. But that was only because the Beaters on the other team thought it would be funny to ram me off, plus hit bludgers at me."

Ellen made a frightened look. "Gah!"

John laughed. "Don't worry, though. You'll do fine. Hey, you should ask your friends to cheer for you!" Then he walked away to join his friends at the other end of the table.

Ellen sighed. Nate walked into the room and sat down. He was carrying a bunch of Water banners and wearing a lot of Water scarves. The blue and silver colors blinded anyone from seeing his actual face and robes.

Ellen grinned. "Nate, what are you doing?"

"Cheering for my team, of course." Nate replied. He held out one of the flags and waved it in front of Ellen.

In an hour, Ellen was already in the dressing rooms, changing into blue robes with silver rims. Everyone on the Water Quidditch team had a Firebolt. And everyone was a bit nervous.

After all, the glory days of the Water Quidditch team was about twenty years ago, when they won every single match. But John was confident they would win this time. Apparently, the Water Dorm had the best team this year.

Ellen remembered watching the practices whenever she got a break. John was the best Chaser by far, and his friends Shawn and Dave accompanied him in scoring. Water also had the best Keeper, who never let a goal in. Her name was Rose. She was in her fifth year. The Beaters' names were Kari and Laura, two fourth years, and they were both twins. They were excellent in defending their teammates as well as in having excellent aim.

But Ellen was still nervous. Heck, she hoped Susan was watching the game at the very least.

And so the tent opened up and John led them all onto the Quidditch field. The Fire Dorm were wearing their red and orange robes, and standing at the ready.

Madam Porter was in the center, and she bade the Water team to come over. "Today I want a clean match," She said, "No jinxing, no sore losers. Now everyone, mount your brooms!"

The stands started to fill. Ellen looked around and saw what must be the whole school assembled. There was a mismatch of cheering from every corner. The Water and Fire Dorms were the loudest of all.

Madam Porter blew her whistle, and they were off.

John zoomed forward and grabbed the quaffle, then zoomed towards the opposite goal ring.

"ELLEN, LOOK OUT!" Kari yelled at Ellen. 

Just in time, Ellen saw the bludger and ducked. Whew, close one.

Kari came over and hit the bludger to one of the Fire Chasers. She got him, but he was able to get back up pretty easily.

Ellen whipped her head about, searching now more carefully for the snitch. Finally, there was a glint of gold down below. Without sparing a second, Ellen raced after it, for it was indeed the Snitch.

The wind picked up its speed, whistling by her ears. Ellen tried to focus ahead. The Snitch was only a few feet away, now.

By this time, the announcer had seen Ellen's sudden movement and was currently announcing her dive to the audience. Ellen tried to ignore this because she had a game to win. She took a risk and stood up on the broom. She reached out her right arm and could almost nab it…

Suddenly, from seemingly no where, one of the Fire Beaters whacked a bludger right at Ellen. It tore through the air and smashed into her right wrist.

"AH!" Ellen cried. She lost balance on the broom and fell the remaining feet to the ground. She rolled a bit and finally came to a halt.

The world was spinning sickeningly about her. The game was still going on overhead, and the announcer was demanding a redo since he was a Water Dorm fan.

Ellen's wrist hurt like hell. She thought it was broken. The wrist was swollen, and was turning a nasty shade of purple…

She had to continue, though. She had to get the snitch. So she snatched up her Firebolt with her good hand and mounted the broom. She took off and was in the air again.

Susan was in the audience, with the rest of the Earth Dorm. She saw Ellen's performance and secretly congratulated her—she was one of the best players.

When Ellen fell, Susan was surprised as well, seeing she wasn't entirely sure that was fair. "Does anyone know the rules to this game?" She shouted at no one in particular.

Tessa was holding a bag of every flavor beans, and eating them very loudly. The only reason she came to the Quidditch game was because of Susan anyway. Oh, and the food. Sports games always had good food.

Ellen swerved around a bit. This wasn't at all intentional—she seriously couldn't help it. Her wrist was broken and she was steering a broomstick with her left hand.

It's too bad because she had always been right handed.

Where's the Snitch? Where'd it go? Not to mention, where'd the Fire Seeker go? If she spotted him again, perhaps she'd be able to find the Snitch again.

Suddenly, Ellen spotted a young boy with red robes on. He was a second year, and he was their Seeker. Bingo.

Ellen sped down to his level. The boy turned around and sneered. "What happened to your hand, Russell? Did you break it?" He laughed.

Ellen gripped the Firebolt with her left hand tighter. She wanted to think of a comeback for him, when suddenly she spotted the Snitch hovering by his ear. She was surprised he couldn't hear it, it was so close.

No matter. Ellen dashed towards him. The boy looked scared and swerved out of the way, making Ellen's path to the Snitch easier.

Her left hand let go of the broom so that no hands were on it now. She reached out and snatched the Snitch right there!

Ellen grinned and raised it to the air, still gripping the broom with her legs.

"She's done it! RUSSELL'S CAUGHT THE SNITCH!" the announcer bellowed into the microphone.

Ellen's teammates crowded closer to her, and they all landed, together.

When they got to the locker room, the cheers of the Water Dorm in the stands were still ringing in Ellen's ears.

John stood up on a bench so he could be seen by everyone. "Today we've finally won a Quidditch match!"That got everyone to applause.

John grinned and continued. "Who's the best team in all the land?!"

"Right on!" the team shouted back, with Ellen included.

"Fire will never be able to defeat us!" John rallied.

"Right on!"

"LET'S HAVE A PARTY TONIGHT!!!" John roared.

Everyone cheered and laughed until they finally got to the Water common room, where they really did have a party. After the nurse fixed Ellen's wrist, of course.

The following weeks were pretty uneventful. Yes, Ellen went to the party, and yes, Ellen secretly brought Susan and Tessa some party food so that they could have their own party. Nate came as well, of course.

But after that party, the remainder of the month of October was filled with tedious classes, homework, and studying.

Well, Ellen was still very excited about all this magic business, but that's no basis for a story. Susan kept her promise, but continued to act strangely—contrary to her normal self. It was small, and usually included staying out all night, and being too tired to stay awake during the day. She continued to see Professor Watson, and Ellen continued to be mystified by Ditch's and Vincent's strange behavior.

But all that is nothing, compared to what happened on Halloween night.

Ellen got up early, about seven o'clock. She was feeling good this morning. The sunlight was streaming in through the window, and there was a blissful silence all around the castle.

In fact, it was so peaceful that Ellen couldn't remember why she got up. So she came to the window, where Fawkes was normally perched. During her stay here, Ellen let Fawkes wander about, hanging out with the rest of the pets.

This morning he was looking to the Forbidden Forest , which was just visible from the window. ( Salem had one of those too.) Ellen squinted towards it. There was something…ominous about it. She couldn't quite put her finger on it…

It was calling to her. That was why she woke up. She heard the trees, the creatures, and unknown ancient magic calling to her from the forest.

But there was no sound. How did Ellen know there was any sort of call? It was more like… instinct.

She had to tell Susan.

Then she remembered. Today is Halloween, which fell on a Saturday this year. Susan would not be up earlier than nine o'clock. Recently, her hours of consciousness dwindled down to very few daylight hours.

Ellen sighed. She would have to wait. Unless…

Ellen looked at Fawkes, whose big brown eyes looked back into hers.

Yes… she could send Fawkes to go get Susan. Magic pets came in handy.

So, Ellen wrote a letter and held it out to Fawkes. Fawkes grabbed it with his talon and took off immediately. He knew where to take it.

At this moment, Susan was having another dream. It concerned her being a Daywalker. 

Susan woke with a start. It was 7:30 in the morning, and she was just at the good part of her dream. She couldn't imagine why she woke up until she saw Fawkes tapping on the window with his beak.

Ellen's pet. What does he want now?So Susan let him in, and Fawkes held out his talon, which grasped a letter written in Ellen's handwriting.

Curious, if not slightly agitated (It was too early for Susan to think) Susan opened the letter and read:

_Susan,_

_I don't know why I woke up so early. It's strange, but I swear I heard the Forbidden Forest calling to me. I don't exactly want to go alone, so I was wondering if you would come with me._

_I know it's sort of against the rules. To that I say, screw the rules, you have money. And anyway, this is more important than school, I'm thinking. Please meet me by the front doors, and bring your wand._

_For God's sake, please wake up in time also._

_Sincerely yours,_

_Ellen_

Susan reread it to make sure she had all the facts straight.

This was eerie. How can a forest be calling? It didn't make much sense. But Susan decided to go anyway, so she may berate Ellen later for making her get up early on a Saturday.

She's just lucky that today was Halloween, where there would be a feast later on tonight. A feast that was comprised of mostly candy.

Susan reached for her school robes and slipped them on over her grey school skirt and her grey school sweater. Then she made sure her wand was in her pocket and left the dormitory, headed for the front doors.

Susan was being wary not to be caught by anyone, and was fortunate not to find any teachers scouring the halls. She did find a poltergeist, however, but managed to sneak past him. He was only putting gum in Professor Vincent's classroom door anyway. Nothing to be particularly alarmed about. Besides, Susan didn't like Transfiguration anyway.

Finally, she reached the front doors, where Ellen was standing with her school uniform on as well. She was clutching her wand in her hand and smiled when she saw Susan approach. "Susan! I was afraid you weren't going to wake up for Fawkes! It's good to see you up this early!"

Susan frowned. How Ellen managed to be ecstatic this early in the morning was beyond her knowledge. "Yeah, I know. I was having a good dream too. Now, what's this thing you were talking about in your letter?"

Ellen took a deep breath before plunging into her explanation. She told Susan about the feeling from the forest, how she knew it was calling her, and how she did not want to go alone.

Susan didn't like the idea of going to the forest, and let it be known. "It's stupid, Ellen. Forests can't call to you, and it's especially true for the Forbidden Forest . You know it has werewolves?""Yes. But that's deeper into the forest anyway, right? And besides, we're not going that far." Ellen replied.

"Just how far are we going?" Susan asked as Ellen turned around to go through the doors.

"I don't know," Ellen answered truthfully. She led Susan outside, right to the edge of the Forbidden Forest . It wasn't that far from the castle itself.

The trees were massive, and cast eerie shadows towards the grounds at this ungodly hour. A strange mist emanated from the center, and strangely enough, Susan was aware of something within its depths as well.

"F-first years aren't allowed in there," Susan whispered in an attempt to excuse herself from entering.

"Don't be scared," Ellen whispered back and took a step towards the forest. Immediately, Ellen heard a calm voice from inside. She couldn't hear what it was saying, but she knew it was a woman's voice. Entranced, Ellen started to enter the forest.

"Ellen? I have a bad feeling about this," Susan warned her friend. When she figured out that Ellen wasn't listening, she said, "Ellen?"

"Sh…" Ellen replied. She pointed into the forest. "There's a voice in there. Did you hear?"

Susan looked at the forest. She couldn't hear a thing, and let that be known to Ellen.

Ellen kept walking into it, however, so Susan had no choice but to follow. She then started to wonder if Daywalkers had a keen sense of night sight, so that she could see this forest better. Looking between the trees, Susan highly doubted she was any better at seeing in the dark than Ellen.

Slowly, they entered the forest. A cool breeze brushed both their faces, but it didn't seem natural at all. It was hard to explain—the wind felt both too cold, yet too warm at the same time. It felt like it had thoughts, like it had a body, when we all know that wind is not the same as a human. When Ellen thought about it, she remembered Gwen, the leader of the Air Dorm. Perhaps she too existed beyond the after life…

"Lumos," Ellen whispered. Her wand tip lit up. It wasn't much, but it was better than squinting.

"The voice is getting stronger, do you hear?" Ellen suddenly asked Susan.

Susan shook her head. "No, I don't hear a thing."

A twig snapped behind them, causing Susan to whip out her wand and turn around. Something moved, but she couldn't quite see it.

"Come on," Ellen motioned for Susan to keep going.

"Hold it right there," The shadow which Susan had heard and saw before was standing right in front of them now. It was Professor Vincent, and he did not look happy at all. His wand tip was lit up as well, and pointed at Ellen and Susan. "Well, well, well," He chuckled, maliciously. "What do we have here? Two first years up early and wandering where they don't belong…"

"I can explain—" Ellen attempted to cut in.

"No. This is explanation enough. You were given clear rules to follow, and yet I find you here now. Fifty points from the Water Dorm, for your incompetency, Russell." Professor Vincent continued.

Ellen's mouth dropped. FIFTY POINTS!

"But we were only—" Susan tried to explain.

"Fifty points from the Earth Dorm, Ms. Thieme, for conspiring with Ms. Russell over here." Professor Vincent finished. Susan's mouth soon mimicked Ellen's mouth.

"That's not fair—we didn't do anything!" Ellen couldn't help but cry out.

Professor Vincent sneered. "Don't talk back to me, Russell. Detention, for both of you. I will see you in my office tonight at eight o'clock. Pity, I was going to enjoy the Halloween feast tonight."

He escorted them both back to the castle, and made them both go to breakfast.

After breakfast, Ellen rushed out to the score board, which had all the Houses and their points. Sure enough, Water and Earth were behind fifty points, letting Fire take the lead, followed by Air.

"This isn't fair," Ellen pouted.

Susan was quickly by her side. "Detention!" She hissed. "My mom's going to kill me! She told me not to break the rules this year!"

"And we'll miss our first Halloween here," Ellen added. But secretly, she didn't care. She wanted to go back into the forest again to find answers.

"If we're lucky, the rest of our roommates won't notice that we're the ones who lost the points," Susan whispered, "But that still doesn't mean we can do it again. Ellen, drop it. Your curiosity is too big for your own good."

"No. Susan, I have to know what's there. What if it's something dangerous? What if it's something good, but it's in trouble? Why is it calling to me? I'm a first year, after all. I can't do much… Susan, we have to find out." Ellen gave her a good long stare. "And when we do, I promise I'll listen to whatever crazy vampire story you have to tell me."

Susan thought about that. The stakes were terrible, but at least Ellen would listen to her about vampires…

"Fine. But we have detention first. Don't tell my mom, because I don't plan to." Susan agreed.


	12. Chapter 12

_Chapter 12: __**No animals were hurt during the making of this chapter… except maybe the hostile ones.**_

_The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Susan and Ellen resorted to lying around, waiting for their doom at seven o'clock._

_Ellen was having a dream. Unlike her previous dreams, this had nothing to do with foreshadowing. That's too bad. But it did have something to do with how she was feeling. _

_In this dream she was running in the darkness. __She was running away from a dragon, which may not actually be real. Or she may have seen a picture of it somewhere. Anyway, she was running away from it._

"_Help! I'm being chased by the slowest dragon in the universe!" she yelled in her dream._

_She tripped and fell. "Think of all the Quidditch matches I'll never play!" She sobbed. While on the floor in her dream, she turned around to see Amanda Hale hovering before her. "Oh no, it's Hale-Zilla! I knew she'd come for me one day!"_

_Amanda was looking about the size of Godzilla after all. "If you think this is huge," She remarked, "Then you should see my ego. Now, sit at your master's feet like the dog that you are!"_

_Ellen was suddenly wearing a dog costume. "But I don't want to be a furry," She sobbed._

"_Shut up and bend over," Amanda commanded._

"_Yes, master," Ellen complied… _

Ellen woke up really fast. Susan was right next to her. Whew… they were sitting on the nice green grass, next to a tree. The day was a beautiful day, with clear skies and a warm temperature and everything. "Nnn—iii—ah!" Ellen remembered her dream. "What a terrible nightmare! It was almost as terrible as that dream over the summer where I learned I'm a witch!"

Susan yawned. "Actually, Ellen, that's true."

"It was a dream!" Ellen snapped. Then she remembered it was true.

Tessa came up to the tree they were sitting under. It was a large beautiful tree, after all. She was holding some sort of letter, which had red ink. "Hey, Susan! Ethan normal-guy told me to give you this letter."

Susan took it from her. "How the hell am I supposed to read this? It's just a bunch of pink smudges." She kept flipping it over, wondering why Ethan would want to send her something like this. Isn't he in the Air Dorm? Why would he want to send a love letter to an Earth person?

"Susan has a boyfriend!" Nate sang. He, Ellen, and Tessa laughed.

Susan scowled. "That's it. Nate so totally deserves a hex."

Ellen and Susan packed up their things quickly. Ellen was drawing under the tree before she had fallen asleep, so that's why she gathered her drawing instruments. Susan was doing homework.

Ellen was getting particularly arrogant today. After all, she and Susan had just barely escaped expulsion early this morning. It was noon now, so she was happy to think of other things… until they had to go to detention at seven.

"Check it out, I've developed some cool moves," Ellen was telling them before they started going back to the castle, "I call this one 'the Ellen.'"

She looked even more ridiculous than she did when she was wearing that dog suit in her dream.

"Ellen, that's the worst dance I've ever seen." Susan remarked truthfully.

"You're just jealous," Ellen replied, smirking.

Up in that very same tree, three wizards saw Susan and Ellen. They were not normal men, however. One of them was a zombie because… uh… well, just because.

"Brains," The zombie said in his zombie language.

The big brawny guy of the group grinned and said, "You said it, Zombie boy."

The smarter and thinner guy pointed at Susan. "Hey, isn't that Susan? The girl we were supposed to capture?"

"Brains?" said Zombie boy. Yeah, he didn't speak a normal language. But he could do magic!

The smart guy blinked. "Let's go do some more cliché henchmen things."

"Okay." The brawny guy said.

They went back to their boss who was a guy named, Bandit Keith. Bandit Keith was a well known bounty hunter for the ministry of magic (in America ). It was his job to hunt down any criminals… or anyone he was paid to hunt.

He smiled when his goons told him where Susan and her friends were. "Excellent work," He praised them. "Their time is up. We must act quickly."

"Oi, boss," the smart guy interrupted in his usual British accent, "You do know we're at Salem , right? That damn headmaster would definitely protect his students."

Bandit Keith's expression was blank. "I don't understand what you're saying. Try speaking American; it's the only language I understand."

Back to Susan and her friends, it was of their utmost relief that the strange dance just ended. 

"I gotta take a whiz," Ellen told them and walked off to find a spot. There was no time to get back to the castle.

"Too much information, Ellen," Nate shouted after her. He and the others waited for her.

Bandit Keith led his goons into a nearby cave (on the other side of the property form the Forbidden Forest ). It was under his orders to catch the Thieme girl alive. Although, he would need some bait first…

"Grave robbing sure is fun…in America ," he was telling them as they set up a plan within the cave. He put his sunglasses back on. "These sun glasses sure make it harder to see in the dark, but I refuse to take these off because I'm an American. And Americans always wear sunglasses."

"Brains?" Zombie boy asked.

Back to Ellen, she had found a nice spot behind a bush and was now done. She found the beach and decided to wash her hands. "Ah, ain't nothing like getting out what you gotta get out…" She remarked. She turned around to see the brawny goon of Bandit Keith standing behind her. Ellen was in an unusual good mood. "Hello, did you enjoy watching me pee?"

She suddenly blacked out, and couldn't remember why because she was unconscious.

When Ellen opened her eyes, she was sitting against a rock in some dark cave. She wondered how long she was out when the same brawny guy hunched over her.

"Rise and shine, dweeb." The brawny guy said.

"Hey, where the heck are we?" Ellen demanded, surprised that she didn't remember getting here.

"Brains," Zombie boy tried to engage Ellen in a duel.

"Oh no, it's a Goth!" Ellen gasped, still not at all frightened to be here.

Susan was getting impatient. "Hey, what's taking Ellen so long? If she's gone for much longer, we'll have to hang out with Alana instead."

"Let's ditch the tosser," Alana suggested at that. (Alana had come to see Susan and Ellen while Ellen was at the bathroom.)

Tessa looked on the ground and discovered a pouch of galleons. "Score, some money! Finders keepers!" She picked it up and looked through it. She found a picture of Tom, Ellen's little brother.

"Hey, that's Ellen's brother!" Tessa remarked.

Susan pointed up at the cave ahead of them. It was easy because it was in a delving right next to the beach. Susan wished that Ellen would stop being attracted to dangerous situations.

"Let's all wander blindly into that cave over there." Susan suggested.

Ellen stood on the opposite side of the stone cave room. It was round and cold, perfect for a hibernating animal or something. Bandit Keith and his three goons were on the other side of the room.

"What the heck do you guys want from me?" she demanded.

Bandit Keith smirked. "Your memories, of course. I've heard a lot about you… what is so special about a mudblood? So, Zombie boy here is going to beat you in a duel."

Ellen stared. "Aren't there spells to steal other people's memories? Why didn't you just take my memory when I was unconscious?"

"Shut up. You're also bait for your friend." Bandit Keith commanded. "Now, it's time for zombie boy here to sing the American national anthem!"

Zombie boy looked a little intimidated. "Brains, brains, brains, brains!" He tried to sing.

"He has the voice of a zombie angel," remarked the brawny guy.

Susan, Tessa, Nate, and Alana had entered the cave now. However, it was an unusually large cave, easy to get lost in. Susan figured this was probably magic; she had seen something like it when she and her family went camping.

"We can't find Ellen anywhere. This is so totally the opposite of super special awesome… Whatever that is." Susan remarked, giving up.

Alana pointed to some coffins that were just lying around. "Hey look, some coffins!" She remarked, "These will come in handy for when we kill Ellen for making us look for her."

Tessa had the audacity to open one of them. As was expected, a skeleton fell on her. "Oh no, a super model!" she complained.

"Stop trying to make out with Tessa!" Nate wrestled with the super model.

Meanwhile, Ellen was losing the duel. That's no big surprise, seeing as she was only a first year. Lucky for her, these so called bounty hunters were the dumbest people she had ever seen. Even though she had taken several hits of expelliarmus, she always was able to jump around and grab her wand back.

"Hey, what happened to Alana?" Susan looked around them. They had entered deeper into the cave.

Suddenly they heard a cry from further in the cave.

"HELP!" Alana screamed, "This super model is one of my fangirls!" She ran screaming in their direction, with a skeleton on her back. Susan, Tessa, and Nate ran away from her as well.

"Not a fangirl!" Susan, Tessa and Nate all screamed as they ran.

"Come back here and help me, you wankers!" Alana demanded. 

Nate stepped hard on the ground and managed to make everyone wipe out. It got the skeleton off Alana as well. "Hmph! Who's smexy now?" Nate taunted.

Susan stood up. "Well, we should be safe now, as long as you guys don't trigger any more obvious traps."

Alana stepped back on a button in the ground. "Oh snap," She told them.

Susan groaned. "Is everyone from England a total spaz, Alana?"

"Pretty much," Alana replied.

They looked behind them to see a rolling rock coming right at them. It was huge! Naturally everyone started to run. Nate quickly took the lead, with Susan and Tessa close behind. Alana brought up the rear, and didn't like that at all.

"Gain way!" She shouted at them to move. "Women go first!" Then of course, she tripped on a small pebble and tumbled over. "Oh, bollix!" The boulder rolled right over her.

Susan glanced behind her at where Alana disappeared. "It got Alana!"

"Good!" Tessa said.

Nate stopped suddenly and took a strong stance. "I shall avenge her death!" He got his fist ready to punch that dang boulder. "My clumsiness gives me super strength!" his fist thrust forward right at the boulder, which was so strong and solid that it…

Popped.

"Holy shit, it really does!" Nate stood with his fist out stretched. Where the boulder was moments before was some sort of speaker.

"Huh, it was just a balloon with a speaker inside," Susan remarked. "I guess I wet my pants for nothing."

"Somebody tell my fangirls… I love them…" Alana gasped.

Ellen looked around at the duel and sighed. She was out of breath from all the dodging, after all. "I sure wish Susan was here. How else am I supposed to win my independence without her help?"

"Ellen! Don't worry; we're here to rescue you!" Susan said as she and Nate, Tessa and Alana appeared at the dueling space. Susan looked around. "Hey wait a minute; have you been practicing your spells? We've been worried sick about you."

"Hey, I'm trying to regain my self esteem here," Ellen defended.

"You hang out with us; you have no self esteem," Susan pointed out.

Ellen blinked. "Oh yeah…"

Bandit Keith took this moment to brag now. "Seems like you're out of luck, dweeb. That Susan came after all…"

"Let me guess: in America , right?" Ellen finished.

Bandit Keith looked offended. "I wasn't going to say that…in America ."

"Ellen, you can still win!" Susan encouraged her friend. "Just remember your love for your friends, and you can do anything!"

"You're right, Susan! That's my favorite kind of movie!" Ellen turned back to her duel. "EXPELLIARMUS!" She aimed her wand at the zombie boy. He flew across the room and hit his head, hard. Nate picked up a rock and chucked it at the smart guy's head. He fell unconscious. Alana and Tessa both used the disarming spell on the strong guy.

"BRAINS?" Zombie boy replied to all this commotion. This one statement can be loosely translated to WTF?

"Well, Ellen, it looks like you learned an important lesson today," Susan concluded. "The only way you can destroy a zombie is to kill its brain."

"Let's get out of here," Ellen suggested. She had noticed that the people who had kidnapped her were gone. Seems like being knocked out couldn't hold them back from running.

Actually, they were just outside of the cave, trying to block the entrance. "They'll never get through this cardboard cut out of a boulder," Brawny guy said.

"Ah, another victory for America ," Bandit Keith smiled.

Susan, Ellen, Nate, Tessa, and Alana pushed against the boulder that was obscuring their way out.

"It's no use—it's made of solid cardboard!" Ellen gave up.

"I can't believe I'm stuck in here with a bunch of girls!" Nate exclaimed.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: **The following story was based on real events. Some names were changed in order to protect the innocent**.

Ellen, Susan, and Nate were still trying to push the solid cardboard. Susan contemplated their day today. First they got up early. Then they heard something weird from the forest. Then Professor Vincent came. Then they nearly got expelled. Now they were stuck in a stupid cave because some bounty hunter wanted to capture her alive.

Ellen turned around and noticed that Tessa and Alana weren't helping.

"Hey, what are you guys doing?" She demanded.

"Get back to work, slave!" Tessa commanded.

Ellen sighed. "Come on, guys, we have to get out of this cave! Susan and I have to get to Professor Vincent's office by seven! For detention!" Ellen thought about that. "Actually, that may be a good thing to miss…"

Alana took out a hitherto unnoticed golden necklace. It was in the shape of a large circle, with arrow heads all along the outside of it. "I've got a bloody good idea! Let's use my Gaydar in order to locate some gay people. They'll be able to help us." She started to follow where it was pointing further into the cave.

The others followed because there was nothing else to do. Alana explained along the way how she acquired a gaydar. It turned out it was a family heirloom, and that there was a spell cast on it to point out the gay people. Though why they would want to do that, Alana was unsure.

"Why would there be gay people hiding in here?" Nate asked.

"Gay people like to hibernate in caves. I saw it on the Discovery Channel," Ellen replied, remembering her times at her muggle house.

"Ellen, that's BATS" Susan corrected.

"Gay people… bats… same thing." Ellen shrugged.

Suddenly, at the end of the long dark tunnel, there was a really bright room. It was filled with all sorts of primary colors, plus a lot of purple.

"It seems my Gaydar was leading us to this room," Alana explained. It looked like the room was some sort of dueling place. There were cushions on all the walls, and spell books in places that weren't covered by cushions.

"Oh my God, this is unbelievable! There are wizards hiding in a cave not too far from Salem ! Also," Ellen remarked, "Alana actually did something useful!"

Alana scowled at that.

Then, two Chinese twins dressed as monks danced into the room at the other end. They looked like they were doing the YMCA dance.

"Oh my… I wonder if those are the gay people?" Alana said.

"There is a slight possibility…" Ellen agreed.

Sarita walked briskly down the forest path. She had one destination in mind, and nothing was going to stop her. She had seen something too. It was stemming from the forest, inexplicably it was indicating that someone, or something, needed her help.

Yes, this is the same feeling Ellen had before. This time, it's coming to Sarita, who was in the Air Dorm. For some reason, the call was stronger for her.

All she had to do was enter the Forbidden Forest through a side entrance, which would be around the beach.

'Somebody's been kidnapped for the kazillionth time, but I don't feel like running. I'll just walk briskly through the evil forest. Besides, they're probably okay anyway…' She thought as she walked with her wand in hand.

Sarita took out a sort of locket from her robe pocket. She flipped it open as she was walking. It was a picture of a younger self when she was in an orphanage after firing her parents at age eight.

_It was a very depressing time in my life. My muggle friend was often picked on, which is really bad because when you're picked on by orphans, you know your situation is terrible._

_I unknowingly used magic that day (kind of turned the bullies into newts. They got better). And that was when I got the Salem letter._

_In order to pass the time, we would play chess… but since it didn't involve Magic or adventures, I found it extremely boring._

"_I love you," Her friend said one day._

"_Kay, thanks." I snapped._

Sarita sighed and snapped the locket shut. She peered behind her, at the bushes, and slowed down. "That's odd—my Patel senses are tingling."

"You're not going anywhere!" Devin jumped out at Sarita. Sarita didn't particularly like that guy from the Water Dorm, but figured she should listen to him anyway. "You will…" Sarita grabbed his arm and flung him over her shoulder. "…not kill me! Please don't kill me!" he landed flat on the ground.

"Idiot, next time you sneak up on me, try keeping your mouth shut," Sarita advised before moving on.

Devin sobbed. "Wait, let me come with you. We can do this together."

"Two first years, an Air Dorm member and a Water Dorm member, are going to challenge the Forbidden Forest and rescue whatever needs to be rescued? Yeah okay." Sarita shrugged and let Devin come along.

The two Chinese wizards had stopped dancing long enough to introduce themselves. "We are the brothers paradox," The twin with an orange outfit said.

"We like to wear women's frocks," The twin with a green outfit said.

"As villains go, we are kind of lame." Orange said.

"But never mind that, let's play a wizard game." Green said.

Ellen and Susan stepped into the duel ring. They were the strongest pair, anyway.

"We have to do this together, Ellen!" Susan said, raising her wand. "That means you do everything I say, got it?"

"Duh… okay." Ellen complied. She may know more spells than Susan, but Susan was the pureblood here.

"We are villains who like to rhyme." Orange said.

"In fact, we do it all the time." Green said.

"You may think it's kind of crass…" Orange said.

"But you can stick your wands right up your… nose." Green said.

"You're supposed to say 'ass' brother, I thought we rehearsed this." Orange sighed.

Susan raised her wand. "Immobilius!" Everything became still.

One of the twins waved his wand slowly, and turned everything back to normal.

Ellen chuckled. "Let this be a lesson to you, Susan. Never, under any circumstance, try to bend the space-time continuum."

"You're right, Ellen. I forgot that they're older wizards." Susan said.

Devin and Sarita crawled deeper into the Forbidden Forest . The mist was getting thicker. The normal sounds of a forest were absent. There seemed to be nobody watching.

Sarita shivered. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to come this far. She had heard Susan had lost the Earth Dorm points just by coming to the brink of the forest…

However, she had made a commitment, and she was going to keep to it. Besides, Devin, a daring Water member, was right with her.

They suddenly approached a stone castle. It wasn't obvious at first—it was very well hidden. It was as high as the trees, and the trees were all very old.

"ATTENTION WIZARDS! My hair has security clearance to get past this door!" Devin said and strode through the remaining bushes and thickets to open the door. Sarita wondered how he did that… and why his hair had security clearance.

"Why do you keep saying that?" Sarita asked, exasperated. "I'm the only other person here.

"Shut up. It's what I do, okay?" Devin snapped.

Ellen and Susan appeared to be winning. Susan summoned a tricky spell which she had learned from her father. The trick was that it would cause confusion. It was rare for one so young.

"You have confused us with your magic box." Orange said.

"We invite you to suck on our…" Green said before he was interrupted.

"Good show chaps! That was a smashing maneuver!" Alana interrupted the twins to praise Susan and Ellen.

"Stop being so British." Nate replied.

Sarita and Devin were inside the dark hallway in the castle… albeit a lower section of the large thing, but still.

"…so this is about the one hundred sixty eighth time I used magic without meaning to," Sarita concluded. She considered hearing voices a part of her magic powers. She heaved a sigh. "Thanks for letting me tell this to you. It feels good to get this off my chest."

"ATTENTION WIZARDS! My hair is definitely not leading you into a trap." Devin replied.

Sarita spun him around and grabbed his front of his robes. "If you say one more thing about your hair, I'm going to shave it off," she threatened.

"You wouldn't have the guts," Devin countered.

Sarita narrowed her eyes. "Try me, big boy."

Now the twins had summoned a large iron man that was painted green. It was a mere spell, but it was like they summoned a knight from no where.

"Against our gate guardian you stand no chance." Orange said.

"I'm not wearing any underpants." Green said.

"Is that true, brother, or are you just rhyming?" Orange asked.

"I didn't want to throw off our timing… but it is true." Green muttered.

Susan looked over to Ellen. "Now's our chance, Ellen, it's time for a surprise attack."

"No worries, Susan, I've got your back," Ellen assured her.

Susan gasped. "Hang on a second; are we rhyming too?"

"Don't ask me, I ain't got a clue," Ellen replied.

"This is like something out of Dr. Seuss." Susan stated.

"I can't stop staring at Susan's caboose." Nate admitted.

"Everyone seems to have gone all rhyme-y" Alana observed.

"Shut the hell up, you stupid lime-y." Tessa responded.

Sarita and Devin were just standing around now, shooting the breeze. Sarita figured she would be the first to break the silence. "So… you want to catch a movie later or…"

Devin stepped on a button in the floor. "Rejected!" he shouted. Alarms started to go off.

"The alarm! What have you done?!" Sarita demanded, surprised that an old castle in the forest would have alarms considering this was supposed to be magic.

"That's for threatening my hair," Devin replied.

"I'll never forgive you for this," Sarita said. She pushed him out of the way and began sprinting down the hall away from him. As she ran away from him, she noticed that he transformed into a much taller wizard.

It's almost as if…

Susan was about to attack again. "I know a spell that can act like laser shots from _Star Wars_," she said to Ellen, "Tell me when we should do it."

"Our faces are at the ready, captain!" Ellen laughed, starting to enjoy the winning feeling.

"Make it so, number one!" Susan smiled. They fired at the twins, obliterating them…mostly. They were still alive. They just lost.

"Alright, they won!" Tessa cheered.

"Now they've cleared the way!" Nate joined in.

"And you know what that means…" Alana started. Then they all joined in, "This crappy side adventure is almost over!"

"It seems we've run out of luck." Orange said.

"It's just a duel, who gives a f—" Green replied.

"Sarita!" Alina looked up, through the bars of her prison cell. Sarita was indeed standing in front of them. She was perplexed as to how Alina got here. This was the forest… is this a trick again? Alina responded to her confused expression, "There are people… in this forest. They've been feasting on students…"

"Ew," Sarita instinctively replied.

Alina shook her head. She stood up and placed her timid, shaking hands on the bars that were obstructing her freedom. "Not that way… oh, Sarita, it's the worst thing possible… They…"

"What?" Sarita encouraged.

Alina sobbed. "They take your magic from your body!"

Sarita stared. She was at a loss for words. "Are you--?"

Alina shook her head. "They haven't gotten to me yet. But they've taken some others… one fourth year…and one second year… once they're done, they wipe your memory and send you back into the muggle world!"

Before Sarita could give a snappy comeback, a tall mysterious man appeared behind her. "Hello, Patel, I've been expecting you."

"You," Sarita replied curtly. "I'm going to make you pay for this." She clenched her fist.

The man chuckled, "I'm afraid you're too late. You see, I have no intention of letting first years run amuck in my castle… and I have no intention of letting you tell anyone else you're here. You heard the calling. You will stay." He smiled and pulled back his silver hair and revealed a golden eye. A beam hit Alina and she disappeared.

"What have you done?" Sarita demanded.

The man revealed a trading card with Alina's scared expression on it. "I've turned her into a card… she will supply me with magic without end."

"You bastard!" Sarita exclaimed.

The man smiled a crooked smile. "No, I think I'm going to let you go. I want you to have a duel with Ellen… and this time you have to win."

"Why?" Sarita demanded.

"She is… a muggle born… muggles do not deserve magic. No one deserves magic. But she is a special case. Defeat Ellen, bring her to me." The mysterious man explained.

"I'm not going to betray Ellen." Sarita stated. Seriously, she barely knew her.

"I'm afraid you have no choice. If you don't do this for me, I will simply make you into this card as well…" the man threatened.

"But Susan will always be with her…" Sarita objected weakly.

The mysterious man smiled. "Leave Susan to me…"

Ellen, Susan, Nate, Tessa, and Alana escaped unscathed.

When seven o'clock rolled around, Ellen and Susan made their ways to Professor Vincent's office, in the Transfiguration classroom.

While in detention, Susan was worked on a potion paper that Watson assigned to her.

Susan found it strange that the bounty hunters had captured Ellen to get to her… and she wondered why her. She wasn't special.

Susan tried not to scream in frustration. She was stuck in the essay, and had no idea how to continue past the part where hair growth was supposed to be important.

Ellen, on the other hand, was just doodling in her note pad. She was still excited from her day. Nothing, not even Professor Vincent, could ruin her day. She looked down at the final picture and found that she drew Fawkes. Ellen then remembered that it was her fault that Susan was in here with her in detention and it made her feel bad about it. It was also her fault that she got her friends stuck in the cave. Man, everything had gone so swimmy since she arrived here…

Seeing Susan quietly sigh as she grabbed another book out of her bag, Ellen wished that she could go back to the forest alone.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash coming from the hallway. It was possible it was just another poltergeist, but in case it was a student, Professor Vincent stood up suddenly. His dark eyes bounced between the two of them. "Stay here." He snarled and rushed out of the room.

Susan rolled her eyes. She wasn't thinking about leaving. When he left, Susan went right on back to her work. She stared at her potions book. She tried reading, but something…some power…some higher calling… pulsed in her head. She shook her head. It was probably just her jumpy nerves.

Ellen said, getting antsy, "Sue, I have to go to the forest… I have to see what was calling me. You can come at your own risk, but I won't ask you to this time. This time you could cover for me somehow."

Susan looked at her friend. She smiled warmly. "I understand that you feel this is your fault…well, it is… but you do know that it was my fault that those bounty hunters captured you?"

Ellen shook her head, not in disagreement, but rather to get those thoughts out of her mind. "Still…Bounty hunters after you… a forest that called to me…"

"Actually," Susan told her, "I felt a calling just now… like endless power was pulsing from the forest… like it was… offering it to me."

Ellen stared at her. "That's not how I felt…" Ellen whispered. Her voice got stronger as she explained, "I felt like there was someone in trouble inside the heart of the forest. I didn't feel any power."

Susan nodded. "In any case, we have to see it. It could put everyone's lives in danger."

Ellen and Susan got out of their chairs and headed to the door. Just then, as Ellen was about to yank it open, Susan's hands flew to her temples.

"AH!" She screamed, falling to her knees. A sharp pain seemed to pierce her mind… like a thousand daggers repeatedly stabbing her head.

"Susan!" Ellen called. Ellen's hand stayed a fraction of an inch from Susan's shoulder.

Susan's pain only increased. At this point Susan faltered on her Day Walker being. She thought that she could resist pain… yet this was the most painful of all feelings.

Suddenly, Susan blacked out.

Ellen was shocked as she saw Susan's body fall limp to the floor. She shook her friend by the shoulders. "Susan! Susan! Wake up!" Her friend remained immobilized.

Professor Vincent burst through the door. "What happened? I heard screaming." He said to Ellen.

"I don't know she just… and then… fainted… I d-don't know..." Ellen panicked.

Professor Vincent bent over Susan. His face was grim. Waving his wand, he elevated Susan onto a stretcher. "Come. We go to the hospital wing now." He said curtly to Ellen.

Mrs. Goldenlight, the nurse, looked at Susan and did some dynastic spells and looked back at Professor Vincent. "It's not good… I cannot explain any of this. Her energy is normal, her vitality signs completely healthy. Whatever is keeping her asleep is not normal."

"What?" Ellen asked.

Mrs. Goldenlight tsked. "I'm saying it is a spell, dear. You haven't been experimenting with potions, have you?"

Professor Vincent interrupted, "They were under my watch. They were both in detention with me. I can assure you I have no such potion in my office."

Mrs. Goldenlight nodded. "Very well. We will have to tell her parents about this."

Professor Vincent nodded curtly. "As well as the Headmaster."

"What about me?" Ellen looked at them both. "I can't… well… I care for her too!"

Mrs. Goldenlight smiled kindly. "Of course you do, dear. However, there is nothing you can do. Rest is all Susan needs… all we can give her for now, until we discover the source of this mystery."

Professor Vincent turned to Ellen. "Go back to your dorm, Russell. You are dismissed from detention."

Ellen didn't have a choice. She had to do as she was told.


	14. Chapter 14

_Chapter 14: __**You're reading **__**A Magical Story**__**! When you could be outside doing something else**__!_

_The next day left Ellen drained and virtually lifeless. She had no idea what had happened to Susan…and the mystery left her depressed._

_Jen nudged Ellen with her foot. Ellen was sitting in an armchair in the Water common room._

"_Ellen…Have you seen Devin? I saw him left yesterday only I didn't see him come back… Ellen?" Jen nudged Ellen with her foot again._

"_What's the point of living without your best friend at your side?" Ellen mused._

_Jen bent over. "Did you hear what I said? Devin is—"_

"_Yes, Susan is gone too! Not physically, maybe… but mentally yeah!" Ellen argued._

_Jen frowned. She tugged at Ellen's arm. "Come on, Ellen… Let's go outside… Q said he would meet me by the front doors. We were going to go for a walk around the grounds. You should too."_

_Ellen begrudgingly got out of the chair. She wavered a bit before following Jen out of the Water Common room._

_Sarita was waiting outside the entrance waterfall. "Ellen." She said. "I have to…"_

_Ellen waved her hand in Sarita's face. "Later…" She muttered. She and Jen continued to the front doors._

_Ellen was vaguely aware of pictures of students hanging in various places on the stone wall. They looked so joyful that Ellen overlooked the word, 'MISSING'._

_Q greeted Jen as they approached him. "How was your night?" He asked Jen, side-glancing at Ellen._

"_Good." Jen smiled. She glanced back at Ellen before continuing. "Let's um… go outside, shall we?"_

_The sun was bright today. It not only seemed to provide light to see the grounds, it also seemed to give nature the ability to glow on its own. It was simply breathtaking._

_Trying to act pleased for Jen and Q, Ellen raced into the open, and opened her arms to the sky and cheered. "At last, some fresh air! I love the smell of magic in the morning!"_

_Q grinned as well. "Look, we're right outside of Salem too!" The three of them laughed._

_A month passed. Ellen barely knew it did since Susan remained in the hospital wing, frozen in time. The classes were normal. The magic was jovial. There was a slight decrease in the student population, however. There were vague complaints as people served to venture where all the students were going. There was a disappearance of Amanda Hale and her goons (except Cassie) as well, Ellen noticed to her small delight._

_Headmaster Ditch was storming through the halls for most of the day. No one would steal his students without facing consequences from him._

_But try as he might, he couldn't find the source. The calling of the forest remained elusive to him… and unknowingly, Ellen was the only one who could resist it._

_Ellen flashed a smile. "Here to see Susan?"_

_He looked down at his flowers and jumped, like he forgot he was holding them. "Yeah…"_

_Ellen moved out of the way so that he could pass through. Then she headed back to her dorm._

_A month passed. Ellen barely knew it did since Susan remained in the hospital wing, frozen in time. The classes were normal. The magic was jovial. There was a slight decrease in the student population, however. There were vague complaints as people served to venture where all the students were going. There was a disappearance of Amanda Hale and her goons (except Cassie) as well, Ellen noticed to her small delight._

_Headmaster Ditch was storming through the halls for most of the day. No one would steal his students without facing consequences from him._

_But try as he might, he couldn't find the source. The calling of the forest remained elusive to him… and unknowingly, Ellen was the only one who could resist it._

_Quidditch season ended. Hurray for the Water Dorm, for they were winning._

_Christmas passed… Susan remained asleep. More students yet disappeared… along with an alarming number of magical plants and animals (like unicorns, centaurs, and little fairies). Professor Belequa spent his days frequently trying to trace the disappearance of his plants…to no avail._

_At last, one January morning, Sarita was blocking the main door at the top of the stairs leading back into Salem . Ellen looked up at Sarita and sighed._

"_Look, everybody, some random loser is blocking my path!" Ellen pointed out._

"_Ever since you beat me in class that one time, no one has been able to take me seriously," Sarita explained. "But that will all change when I defeat you in a duel!" Sarita narrowed her eyes. She thought to herself, 'I have to defeat Ellen in a duel if I ever want to see Alina and everyone else ever again. My bond may forbid me from telling the headmaster and other adults, but that doesn't mean I can't save everyone by giving that guy what he wants,' Sarita concluded her thoughts._

_Ellen sighed, taking out her wand. "I accept your challenge, Sarita. Kicking your butt never gets old… or new… or… forget it. It's on."_

_The two of them walked over to a precipice of the stone castle. Down below were some pretty sharp rocks to land on if anyone fell._

_Since Q had mysteriously disappeared, Jen was by Ellen's side… though she looked less full energy than normal. Also, Tessa and Nate were with her too. This way, a fair duel could be held._

"_Don't worry, Ellen," Jen whispered. She smiled reassuringly. Ellen realized that even though Jen's best friend was gone, she still stayed strong somehow by standing here beside her. Ellen reinforced her courage while Jen continued, "We'll be supporting you all the way…"_

"_Ten bucks on Sarita!" Nate bet._

"_Fifty bucks on Sarita!" Tessa did better._

"_A hundred pounds on Sarita!" Alana did even better._

_Sarita folded her arms smugly. "You may have defeated me before, Ellen, but this time I have the upper hand. I have placed my faith in the heart of magic. And, without Susan to stand by your side, you have no way of defeating me!"_

_Ellen smirked, feeling the adrenaline pumping. "Yeah, well at least I'm not adopted."_

"_What did you just say?" Sarita snapped._

"_Sorry, did I touch a nerve?" Ellen mocked, "Why don't you go home to mommy? Oh, that's right, you don't have one!"_

_Sarita held her tongue. She replied calmly, "Ellen, I respect you as a witch, but if you continue to act like a petulant child…"_

"_Hey, look everyone!" Ellen interrupted so she could act like a petulant child, "I'm Sarita Patel! I have a fetish for dragons, and my voice sounds like Brock from Pokémon! Screw the rules; I'm in love with Nurse Joy!"_

_Sarita lost her control. "That's it, you're F%ing dead! With this spell, I'll be able to summon…"_

"_For the love of God, just cast the damn spell already," Ellen was getting bored._

"_Fine." Sarita agreed. "Come forth, Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!" A chimera rose from the ground. The mystery man taught her that trick. He wanted Sarita to catch Ellen with ease, to overpower her… and that's why he taught a first year that spell._

_Ellen was shocked. "Oh poopy…" she muttered._

"_Get up on the Hydra's back, Ellen!" Jen encouraged._

_Ellen ignored Jen and took out her wand. Using her skills from her Charms class, she summoned cotton balls. "I activate asexual reproduction!" Ellen smirked. "Prepare to be smothered by my hairy balls!"_

_Bandit Keith the bounty hunter, who was not allowed into Salem because of Professor Ditch, was watching the duel, and liking what he saw. "This is almost as exciting as my favorite movie ever—__Pearl Harbor_ ! Those Japanese bastards got what was coming to them… in America !"

Meanwhile, Ellen attacked again. "Inflamero!" A jet of fire hit the dragon spell right in the chest. The spell went shimmery for a minute, and appeared in full force. Next, the dragon spell launched a fireball at Ellen. Ellen dodged, rethought her strategy about using fire, and finally chose water to do the job.

"Aquamente!" She shouted. A stream of water burst from her wand and caused the spell dragon to shimmer even more. However, it could not use fireballs again, because this was a very weak dragon.

Okay, it was just because Sarita didn't master that sort of spell.

Sarita cocked an eyebrow. "How the hell did you do that?" She scratched her head on this one, considering it made no adequate amount of sense.

"It's called being a nerd!" Ellen simply answered. "Deal with it!"

Sarita took a step closer to the edge of the roof. "I'd rather die than lose to my new archrival!"

Alana gasped. "Oh my, if Ellen uses a spell, the shock waves could send Sarita flying off the edge of the castle!"

"Your gay friend is right, Ellen." Sarita replied.

"I'm not gay, I'm just British," Alana countered.

"Dude," Ellen said, "Don't you think you're overreacting a little? I mean… it's just a meaningless wizarding duel."

"Duels are serious business," Sarita stated. "Now, unleash your spell—if you have the guts."

"This is awesome!" Nate commented, "Ellen is going to kill Sarita! Best school year ever!"

"I've always dreamed this moment would come," Tessa said.

"Sarita must die!" Ellen stated. Then, from a corner of her mind, she couldn't help questioning this action. She never would kill anyone… even if Sarita was being a prick…

A memory of Susan came saying, "Ellen… kill that son of a bitch."

Jen darted out from the sidelines and launched herself at Ellen. "Ellen, you can't take this risk—she might survive!"

"She's right! Stop!" Ellen fell to her knees. Jen ran to her side.

Bandit Keith was astonished, while he was on the sidelines. "I can't believe it! Ellen forfeited the duel to Sarita! Ben Affleck would be ashamed—in America !" He turned around to plot a new way to get to Susan. It wasn't going to work, of course. But he wanted to try to get his money for the boss.

Sarita smirked. "I knew my emo strategy would pay off. You geeks are so gullible. Now…" Sarita struggled. The magic was binding her to the mystery man… but Ellen had saved her life…perhaps there would be another way…when Ellen was strong enough to face him…

And with that, she left Ellen, who was kneeling on the stone ground still. Sarita retreated into the castle, where she would be safest for now.

Ellen couldn't believe what happened. "I lost a duel! I no longer have a reason to live!" she started to cry.

"In that case, can we leave you before you get emo?" Alana thought she should jump at her chance.

"Hell no." Ellen snapped.

"Bugger." Alana replied.


	15. Chapter 15

_Chapter 15: A long time ago at a castle far, far away…_

_WIZARDS_

_Episode XV_

_Duel of Fates_

_It is a period of civil war. Ellen Russell, after having lost her first wizard duel, has gone all emo._

_Meanwhile, Susan Thieme is still in some kind of coma. And she might not wake up!_

_Tessa is still wondering how to solve that coma._

_Nate, of course, is still perplexed by the decrease in the number of students, and the lack of an effort by the teachers to save them_

_Jen still misses Q._

_Unbeknownst to any of them, George Lucas is planning a Super Special Awesome edition of __A Magical Story__ where they'll all be replaced by CGI dancing monkeys._

_In America ._

_Ellen was still kneeling on the ground. She refused to say anything—this was mortifying, losing a duel which she was so confident she could win in._

"_Ellen hasn't said a word since she lost to Sarita," Jen told Tessa._

_Tessa walked over and knelt next to Ellen. "Ellen, answer me! How many fingers am I holding up?" She held out her fist, which was curled into a ball._

_Ellen was silent, like she was before._

"_That's right! Zero! Man, you're good at this game. Let's play something else." Tessa complimented._

"_Check her pulse, Tessa!" Alana suggested._

_Tessa patted Ellen on the back. "Don't worry about it, Ellen. You know, I lost a duel to Sarita too, but I didn't get all mopey about it… It was in class, of course… But I did get these strange dreams…wait a minute, have you been having dream-sex with Sarita behind my back?" She grabbed Ellen's shirt collar and shook her. "Answer me!"_

"_Oh please…" Cassie's voice drifted over to them. Sure enough, Cassie from the Fire Dorm soon joined them on the roof of the castle. "Who hasn't had dream sex with Sarita?"_

"_Look everyone; it's Skankity-slut-slut!" Jen said._

"_Actually, my name is Cassie," Cassie corrected, and failed to act as such since she still seemed preppy and had a lot of make up._

_Jen blinked. "That's what I said—Skankity-slut-slut."_

_Cassie chose to ignore this. She had more pressing matters to confront them about. "I heard Ellen has lost the will to live. That is so stupid. Broken rivals are easy to defeat."_

_Jen was outraged. "It's time we settle this like REAL women!"_

"_Woo hoo! Cat fight!" Nate cheered._

"_No, not like that," Jen quickly replied._

"_Mud wrestling?" Nate suggested._

"_No…" Jen said._

"_Naked pillow fight?" Nate asked._

"_NO!" Jen snapped._

"_Embroidery contest?" Alana suggested._

_Jen gaped, along with Nate and Tessa._

"_What?" Alana snapped at them._

_Moving on, Jen took out her wand. "Cassie, I challenge you to a duel! And once I defeat you, I'm going to kick your bleached butt all the way to booby land!"_

_Jen thought of all the spells she had learned since September. It was now January, so that should be a lot. She wondered which of her painfully adorable charms she should use first. _

"_Whatever you do, Jen, don't look directly at her cleavage!" Tessa shouted up to Jen. "It's like a black hole! You'll get sucked in!"_

_Cassie smirked, getting over confident now. "Face it, you don't belong here. You're just an average muggle-born lover who stumbled her way into the big leagues. If I were you, I'd quit right now."_

_Jen held her ground. "No! I won't give up! And when I beat you, Cassie, it will finally prove that women are equal to men!"_

_Everyone decided to laugh at Jen._

"_I'm serious!" Jen argued. She had chosen her spell now. "I summon Shining Friendship! It symbolizes the friendship I have with my friends." A little ball of light appeared. "That's why it's so small and fragile… it has Ellen's courage, Susan's spirit, and Q's heart."_

"_Aren't you forgetting someone?" Alana asked. Nate and Tessa both perked up at this, realizing there were a couple names missing._

"_Who's that?" Jen asked._

"_You know…" Alana subtly pointed to herself, "Long blond hair… dashing good looks… slightest hint of an accent?"_

"_Cassie?" Jen suggested._

"_Me, you trollup!" Alana corrected._

"_Also, you forgot me and Tessa," Nate added._

_Jen didn't hear either of them but decided to continue her duel. It was Cassie's turn, and she cast flipendo, a minor stunning spell. It didn't really stun, but knocked people back a couple feet. However, this spell was absorbed into Jen's glowing orb. How interesting._

"_Nothing can destroy friendship!" Jen stated, "It's the strongest force in the universe! It's even stronger than a kazillion dragons and werewolves, plus Day walkers!"_

"_Blasphemy!" Tessa shouted, astonished._

_Cassie sighed and lowered her wand. "I surrender. I can't withstand another friendship speech…"_

"_Victory is mine!" Jen cheered._

_Ellen finally came out of her shock. "This duel has given me some new found inspiration. After all, if someone as useless as Jen can win a duel, then I can too!"_

_Cassie didn't leave, however. "I understand that everyone is missing from Salem , it seems, yet Susan is the only one unconscious._

_Ellen sighed. "Yeah…"_

_Cassie almost burst into tears. "Amanda is missing too! What the heck am I gonna do?"_

"_Besides accept my duel?" Jen muttered._

"_Uh…" Ellen shrugged._

"_Plus there's this ongoing noise coming from the forest… it's just frustrating!" Cassie added._

_Ellen blinked. "Wait, you hear it too?"_

_Cassie shrugged. "Yeah, everyone does, after a time…I think."_

_Jen, Tessa, and Nate exchanged confused looks. "We didn't hear anything." Nate pointed out._

"_Well you will!" Cassie snapped. She looked at Ellen. "I can't believe I'm telling you this, but I need help."_

"_How?" Ellen asked._

"_I'm in the Fire Dorm. You and your friends are in the other dorms. We can work together to find the source…" Cassie suggested._

"_How?" Ellen repeated. "Nobody knows where it's coming from."_

_Cassie gave Ellen a look. "Well, you're a smart mudblood. You can figure it out."_

_Ellen looked at the ground, shuffling her feet. "I guess…we can go to the forest and follow the sound…"_

_Cassie smirked. "That's better. Meet me here at nine. In March. I think it'll be warmer then. Plus we need to plan. Don't worry about Professor Vincent and the other teachers—they're too busy trying to find the ten seventh years, six sixth years, nine fifth years, eight third years, nine second years, and various first years."_

_Ellen nodded, and looked back to Jen, Alana, Tessa, and Nate. It was up to them to save Susan, and save the school._

_Two months passed with ease. Yes, there were still some disappearances, but at least it was slowing. Susan still didn't wake up, however. Ellen and the remainder of her friends studied hard to plan to visit the forest for the first time._

_At nine o'clock at night, they did meet Cassie on the trail outside of Salem . Cassie was wearing a red cloak in addition to her school clothes. It was quite chilly for March. The group members were as follows: Cassie, Ellen, Nate, Tessa, Jen, and Alana. Six first years should be enough to save the school, right?_

_Quickly and quietly, the six of them broke into the quiet of the Forbidden Forest . It was extra dark since the trees were so tall and blocking the light from the moon._

_Ellen took the lead and lit her wand. Cassie and the others soon did the same. Cassie took the lead next to Ellen._

"_I want to make it clear," she hissed, "That once we save everyone, everything will go back to normal. You'll be the loser, and Amanda and me will be the popular ones. Got it?"_

_Ellen groaned. "Got it, your royal highness…"They continued walking for some time. Ellen listened and listened for that little song, but it wasn't as strong as it was before. Eventually, it did start becoming heard by all of them, but it was very faint._

_It seemed like they followed the bumpy forest trail for hours, looking for something they weren't quite sure what._

_Then, Ellen saw it. The very tip of an ancient building. It was green, and looked like it was very old. It probably could observe whatever went on in the forest…But what was it doing here?_

_Soon enough, they made it to the base of the tall structure. Wide black doors led the way inside, guarded by a very familiar person… But it turned out not to be a child, but a tall security guard of sorts._

_The announcer suddenly blocked the entrance from the six teenagers. Apparently they were unwanted, even though their peers were. "ATTENTION WIZARDS! I will need to see some identification first before letting you enter!"_

"_Me love you long time?" Tessa tried to look cute._

_Cassie had a wry smile. "You don't need to see their identifications."_

"_I… don't need to see their identifications." The announcer replied._

"_These aren't the students you're looking for." Cassie waved her hand._

"_These aren't the students I'm looking for." The announcer complied._

"_Move along." Cassie commanded._

_But the announcer didn't. He merely gazed upon Cassie in a strange fashion. "My hair is in love…" He admitted._

_Cassie held out her hand, and he took it… then she flung him aside. "Rejected!" She shouted. The announcer tumbled down the stairs, giving everyone else enough time to jump inside and lock the door._

"_Wait, my hair wants to marry you!" The announcer sprinted to the door, and then ran into it just like a cartoon. "Ow, my hair."_

_Ellen took the lead once again. "Come on, gang! Let's go rescue our peers! Oh, and Susan!"_

_As they were exploring the large mansion, Ellen found Bandit Keith once again. He was leaning over some balcony, which was a balcony over a room they couldn't see. Ellen clenched her fist._

"_Bandit Keith!" She shouted to get his attention. "This is for kidnapping me and trapping me in a cave with Alana!" She punched his chest, and was amazed by the fact that her fist merely bounced off his chest._

"_You punch like someone who isn't American!" Bandit Keith laughed, and grabbed Ellen's wrist before she could punch him again._

"_How come you're so strong and fast?" Ellen asked, wincing in pain._

"_I modeled myself after the greatest American hero of all time… Hulk Hogan." Bandit Keith replied. He let go of Ellen so that she could join her friends, in a bit of embarrassment._

_Jen pointed down below. There was a dueling field, with Sarita and a strange man with silver hair and a golden eye. "Look! Sarita is dueling that guy!"_

_Ellen peered down at the duel as well. "But they're both villains! I mean… Sarita did try to beat me in a duel! Who are we supposed to route for?"_

_Cassie thought about that. "Well, the silver hair guy did kidnap Amanda. And that's unforgiveable!"_

_Sarita was looking really cool and confident. She stared the strange man straight in the eye. "At last the circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner, but now I am the master."_

"_Only a master of magic, Patel girl." The man reminded her._

_Nate shook his head. "What's with all the Star Trek quotes?" (He had never seen a muggle movie before, and didn't plan to.)_

_The evil guy summoned a fairy tale book. "I activate the magical 'toon world!"_

"_A grown man watching children's cartoons?" Sarita scoffed, "That's almost as insulting as a grown man kidnapping children in a northern American school and robbing them of their magic!"_

_The Man smiled wryly. "Toon world lets me turn your spells into cheap imitations… Come forth, Blue Eyes Toon Dragon!" the Man commanded. A cartoon version of Sarita's favorite monster appeared. It looked like it was mocking her._

_Alana gasped. "That's no toon—it's a space station! Uh… no wait, you're right. It's a toon."_

_Sarita couldn't help thinking, 'Help me, Alina, you're my only hope!'_

_Alina actually did answer, telepathically at least. 'Use the Force, Sarita!'_

_Ellen bent over the rail so that she could yell to Sarita. "Hey Sarita! Try threatening to kill yourself again! That move really works! Only this time, really do it!"_

_Sarita ignored Ellen and got ready to summon her favorite creature. "I'm going to put all my faith in one spell… and faith awards me again with the Blue Eyes White Dragon!" and that dragon appeared for Sarita. "Now it's time for the ultimate cartoon showdown! Japanese animation versus American animation!"_

"_Hey!" Bandit Keith shouted at Sarita. "You're not allowed to use that word! Only Americans can—"_

_Sarita shouted back, "Shut up."_

_Bandit Keith was silent. He didn't expect that. So he muttered, "In America …"_

"_You're forgetting one thing, Sarita," The man said. "Japanese cartoons tend to be slower than their American counter parts…" And with that Sarita's Dragon fired and missed. Sarita gasped. She wished she hadn't made such a drastic mistake. _

"_His dragon dodged my attack!" Sarita panicked slightly. Maybe she shouldn't be fighting this guy…_

_The bad guy pulled back his silver hair, exposing his golden eye again. "I'm going to remove your soul from your body, leaving your body to stand around with a blank expression on its face…" A beam of light shot Sarita and her soul was gone… leaving about the same blank expression she had before. "…which you probably won't notice much… OooH! I totally burned you!"_

"_Man, that duel was so boring!" Ellen commented, "It's almost like reading a whole book about a wizard school." _

"_Let's go complain about it!" Nate suggested._

_SURPRISE:_

_The announcer approached Nate. Nate was stuck in a corner, and couldn't escape. "Susan never told you about your father, did she?"_

_Nate shook his head. "She told me enough! She told me YOU killed him!"_

_The announcer laughed. "No! My Hair is your father!"_

"_NO!!!" Nate yelled._

_Don't worry, that last bit didn't really happen. That's why we don't let George Lucas write for Harry Potter fanfics._


	16. Chapter 16

_Chapter 16 __**The Mysterious Castle. That's right, no jokes this time, because this is all serious. Remember what happened last chapter?**_

_There were some very important business people dining in a room. They all had business suits. That's how important they were._

_Okay… no it wasn't important. Ellen, Cassie, Jen, Alana, Tessa, and Nate were brought to a dining room to discuss stuff. However, the mysterious man with silver hair and a golden eyeball wasn't there. So it sucked since it didn't look like they were saving anyone._

"_Children," One of the businessmen stood up. "I will be honest to you. The men in this room don't have magical powers."_

_Alana gasped. "Then why did you take our wands?"_

_The business man replied, "Because we know that you are wizards. In America , there is a muggle organization that is built to… give normal people powers."_

"_What are you doing with our classmates?" Jen demanded._

_The businessman smirked. "Straight to business. I like it. Well, we explained everything to those children as well. We are going to take your powers. The girl you saw dueling earlier was a spy, who failed in her mission. That is why her soul is gone."_

_Ellen couldn't help but think of poor Sarita. "You won't get away with this. It's wrong. The wizarding world… The professors will get you!"_

_All the men in suits in the room laughed. The main one continued, "I don't think so. You see, we will find a way to take your powers before the powerful wizards arrive. Even so, we are…more than ready to face them."_

_Tessa did not like the sound of this. She was just happy that the full moon wasn't supposed to come until the end of the month. Whew._

"_Let me go! Take them if you want! Just let me go free!" Cassie begged the men._

_Ellen looked at her with disgust. Oh, come on…_

_The businessman smirked. "I tire of your continued complaints. You will stay in the rooms. Don't worry; they are like a muggle hotel. But you won't get your wands back."_

_It was a long hallway, built just like a hotel. There was no way to escape. They were prisoners, whether they liked it or not. Six doors lined the hallway, three on each side._

_Alana was about to go to her room. "Good night, everyone! I hope we can get out of this mess before we die!"_

"_Go to sleep, you lime-y person!" Tessa shouted._

_Alana closed the door, leaving just Ellen, Tessa, Nate, and Jen in the hallway. Cassie had retreated to her room and began crying._

_Oh, and Bandit Keith at the other end of the hall for some reason._

"_Guys?" Ellen peered over at the figure of Bandit Keith. "Is it just me, or is Bandit Keith stalking us?""Just ignore him." Tessa replied, and led the way down the hall._

_Bandit Keith, meanwhile, couldn't help but snicker. "This outfit is the perfect camouflage… I'm like a chameleon—an American chameleon."_

_Cassie was alone in her room, with hotel pajamas on. She was just sitting on her couch, looking preppy._

"_I think it's time for some fan service." She said, and continued to sit there and do nothing._

_Ellen stood watching the window in her room. Actually, she was watching the moon. "Man… what a day. I wonder if Susan's thinking about me right now? In her unconscious dreams…"_

_Tessa was on her bed, watching the moon. "Man, what a day. I wonder if Susan is thinking about me right now? In her unconscious dreams…"_

_Then she heard a knock on the door. Tessa opened the door, saying, "Go away, I won't betray my friends!" She saw who was really at the door: Nate and Alana._

"_Oh, it's just you two." Tessa was slightly disappointed._

"_We had a bad dream. Can we sleep with you tonight?" Nate asked._

"_I don't want to sleep with a girl!" Alana told him._

"_Nobody cares what you want!" Nate snapped._

_Alana looked sheepish. "…My mommy does…" she muttered._

_Tessa invited them both into her room anyway. They all settled on the couches by the windows._

"_I've been thinking," Nate started, "I don't like being stuck here like prisoners. I don't want to wait until the end of my magical career. It's time we made something of ourselves and start to make a plan to get out of here!"_

_Alana was positively bored, even though this is what she wanted too._

"_That's dangerous talk, Nate," Tessa pointed out._

"_I don't care!" Nate replied, "I just think that we deserve to have our very own adventure! So while Cassie and Ellen and Jen are asleep, we're going to have an adventure. It'll be just like the Goonies!"_

"_Can I be Cory Feltman?" Alana asked._

"_No. I'm Cory Feltman." Nate replied._

_Alana groaned. "But you ALWAYS get to be Cory Feltman!"_

"_Can I be River Phoenix?" Tessa asked._

_Nate stared. "River Phoenix wasn't in the Goonies."_

"_Oh. Well which movie was the one where they find a dead body?" Tessa asked._

"_That's __Stand By Me_." Nate replied, slightly irked now.

"Oh." Tessa answered. She had an idea. "Hey, can we find a dead body?"

"That sounds like an adventure to me!" Nate agreed…besides getting a way out of here, he thought.

Alana rolled her eyes. 'I'm surrounded by wankers.'

Ellen was fast asleep in her bed. She was having a pretty good dream too, and didn't want to be woken up.

"Ellen…" Susan's voice floated through the air. "Ellen…! Oh for heaven's sake, wake up!"

"Susan!" Ellen sat up. "Is that you?"

"Of course it's me!" The voice replied, "Who else do you know who talks like this?"

"Well, could you keep it down?" Ellen suggested. "I'm trying to sleep." But she got out of bed anyway, and went into the hallway of doors.

"Ellen… follow my increasingly annoying voice…" Susan commanded.

"This had better be good; I was dreaming about our finals." Ellen said before rushing down the corridor after the voice.

"Ellen…"

"And stop saying my name!" Ellen snapped.

Nate, Tessa, and Alana made it to the ground floor of the mansion. It was dark and pretty creepy, as any large castle should be. They just were approaching a knight in armor statue.

"Okay…" Tessa told them, "It's been ten minutes and we haven't seen a single dead body yet. I'm starting to think this whole idea was stupid."

Nate found a coil of rope on the wall. "Hey, we can use this rope to hang Alana… and then SHE'LL be a dead body." He took it off the wall.

"That never happened in the Goonies," Alana pointed out.

"Well, it should have." Nate pouted.

Cassie sighed on the couch. "More fan service…"

Bandit Keith too was relaxing on his couch, though he was actually lying down… with his sunglasses and jeans still on. "Now it's time for some Bandit Keith service… in America !"

He started to do some leg ups before sitting all the way up.

Ellen finally reached a dungeon. At least she thought it was a dungeon, judging by the stone room and the cold air passing through. "Susan, where are you?"

"I'm down here, you ungrateful little wench." Susan replied. Ellen looked down and found a card with a picture of Susan on it. "Hey, how's it going?" Susan asked cheerfully.

Ellen bent over to pick the card up. "Susan! Are you okay?"

"Of course I'm not okay," Susan snapped. "You put me in a sanitarium."

"What? No I didn't!" Ellen replied.

"Yes you did. You couldn't stand the sight of me anymore so you had me sent away!" Susan grumbled.

"Susan. You're not in a sanitarium. You've been kidnapped." Ellen reasoned.

"What?" This was news to Susan.

"A weird guy with muggle henchmen who steal souls and magic from Salem students put your soul into a card and now he's forcing me to duel him in a tournament in order to rescue you," Ellen explained.

"What?" Susan said. She couldn't believe she wasn't with her friend at this moment. What the hell happened, anyway?

Ellen punched the stone floor hard. "And now my hand is broken…"

At that minute, though, the Susan card floated away from Ellen. "Whoa!" Susan cried as she was carried away.

Three stones protruded from the ground. The Susan card floated to the center stone. Ellen noticed that the other stones had cards on them as well. "My God… they're full of cards."

"Ellen, Ellen, give me your answer do…" the Susan card sung.

"I'm half crazy all for the love of you…" the Sarita card sang as well.

"By the way, this is a 2001 parody," Alina pointed out.

Ellen woke up. "Gah! This is a bizarre place!"

Tessa, Nate and Alana stumbled upon a portrait of a woman. It was very big, and looked to be very treasured.

"Oh my, look!" Alana pointed at the portrait.

"She's beautiful!" Tessa commented. "Who do you suppose it is?"

"Maybe she's that weird guy's wife!" Alana suggested.

There was a pause. "No seriously, who do you suppose it is?" Tessa repeated.

There was a hollow noise against the stone floor. The three explorers turned around and saw the man with silver hair standing behind them.

"What are you three doing here?" His voice boomed.

"Oh no!" Nate exclaimed, "It's one-eyed willy! He's come to protect his treasure!"

The man's upper lip curled into a smile. "I'm afraid you three have seen too much. I can't have someone thinking I'm straight… so I'm just going to have to discipline you!" He pulled back his silver hair to reveal his golden eye again.

"I knew going on an adventure was a bad idea!" Alana told them. The golden eye shined and turned the floor into purple gunk. Seriously.

The three of them fell through the floor.

"This is your fault, punk!" Nate blamed Alana. Then they hit the stone floor below. Luckily, they were all okay, considering they didn't have wands to slow them down.

"Ugh… what happened?" Alana asked, a little disoriented from the sudden fall.

"Can you guys hear chanting?" Tessa asked them. They all listened, and did hear a weird group of chanters. At the other end of the room, a group of men with hoods and cloaks were indeed chanting something. The man was in the center of all of them, doing some sort of dance.

"I can't escape this feeling… deep inside of me… ooh!" The man started singing. "Girl, you just don't realize… what you do to me…" He was gesturing at the painting of the girl they were just looking at.

Nate, Tessa, and Alana watched from a safe distance.

"Holy $% on a $% sandwich, with $% on top." Nate replied to this strange ceremony.

"This is the funkiest satanic ritual I've ever seen!" Alana commented.

The man heard that however. "How dare you interrupt my dance festival? I'm so cross that I think I'll send you to the Shadow Realm." Everyone got panicked looks on their faces.

The man smiled again. "It's useless to resist. After all, you're just children…making you totally expendable." His eye started to glow. Then he noticed that so had Alana's Gaydar. "What's this? It's made out of the same material as… my golden eye."

Alana remembered something from her childhood. As long as she had this weird magical gaydar, she could defend herself without a wand. "That's right, weird dude." She said, "And now I'm going to use my powers to pretend that this whole adventure never even happened!"

Nate woke up face first on his pillow. He sat up. "What a nightmare… I dreamt I spent the whole night putting up with Alana…"

Cassie was still sitting against the couch. "Fan service!" She sung.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

Welcome to the wizarding channel news broadcast! You could be doing something else, but I guess you really wanna know what will happen to these poor kids, don't you?

Well, we bring you live action of Wizard duels. I can barely contain my excitement. We'll find out right after this commercial! Don't you go anywhere now. J

_Have you been in an accident because of a wizard duel? Have you suffered injuries because of your archrival? Do you blame other people for your clumsiness? If so, you can call 1-800- DUELINSURANCE. We'll fix the problem by throwing lots of money around. _

_Duel Insurance—because nothing heals pain quite like money._

We're back, and the Duelist Kingdom is already full with evil schemes and stuffs. It looks like that mysterious man is forcing the teens to battle one another.

Right now, Ellen Russell is struggling to defeat Cassie What's-her-last-name. And who can blame her? Cassie is a serious competitor with a long list of victories. Let's take a look at her dueling history.

1. First she faced Susan Thieme… and she lost.

2. Then she went up against Sarita Patel… and lost.

3. Her last match before entering the finals was against Jen Paquette, which of course she must have won. Oh, my mistake—she surrendered.

I think I speak for everyone when I ask, what's wrong with this picture?

Cassie smiled. She knew a pure blood like herself could defeat Ellen and therefore not get killed by weird men. "Expelliarmus!"

Ellen quickly dodged the spell. "You want to play rough? Okay then. Say hello to my little friends!" She summoned those cotton balls.

Cassie had a blank expression on her face. She had no idea what was going on, since that was an incredibly stupid move.

This could be a big mistake for the young witch with a ridiculous accent. Cassie could destroy that cotton ball with ease. I wonder what her next move will be.

"I surrender…" Cassie sighed.

Yeah… that Cassie… She's a great witch alright.

Well, I'll show you now one of the pre-recorded interviews of the Salem staff, Mako Tsunami.

INTERVIEWER: Mr. Tsunami, Mr. Tsunami! Is there any truth to the rumor that Ellen Russell refused to dine with you because you are a freaky fish guy?

MAKO: I am not a freaky fish guy! And for your information, I threw a harpoon at her before she could pull out a wand! It was just like the ending to Pirates of the Caribbean 2, only this ending was actually satisfying!

INTERVIEWER: In that case, why is she chosen to save the world, and you are just talking to yourself?

MAKO: I'm not talking to myself! I'm talking to the Ocean!

INTERVIEWER: Oh. Okay.

MAKO: The Ocean and I are getting married! Isn't that right, Ocean? (pause) The Ocean says yes.

We're back to live action, and Bandit Keith's large bear is causing Alana Brewer big problems.

Alana waved her wand. "Now I have the power to copy your catch phrase!" she laughed, "In America !"

Bandit Keith was furious. "Hey, that's my joke! It only works when I say 'in America !' it loses all meaning when you say it!"

Alana cupped her ear, pretending she hadn't heard. "What's that? I couldn't hear you! I was too busy being American!"

"YOU'RE NOT AMERICAN!" Bandit Keith exclaimed, "You're not even wearing a flag on your head!"

"You're right!" Alana had a sarcastic tone, "I must have left it back home… In America !"

Bandit Keith launched himself at her, but the security guards grabbed him and dragged him away, since they have to leave the stupid first years alive for their master.

Bandit Keith freed himself from the guards. He ran away and jumped toward the man, who was sitting in a throne high above them all. "I'm not leaving with out a fight! I pledge allegiance to the flag!" He stuck his hand out at the man, as if he were holding an invisible gun. "You sorry excuse for an American…"

"I learned this trick from the James Bond villains…" the man explained. He tapped his foot once and a hole opened up under Bandit Keith, making him fall into an endless pit. Money can do that.

And on that note, let's go to a commercial…

………………………………………………………………………………..

You're watching the Wizard Channel! We show magic… and that's about it.

This match will determine everything. One of these wizards will win… actually; they won't win anything, will they? Just the ability to survive and perhaps challenge the leader. Speaking of which, why would he want to challenge first years?

Ellen and Nate were going against each other now, of course. But it doesn't matter who wins this duel, because in the end they are both losers—I mean winners. Yeah, winners.

"This is it, Ellen," Nate was saying, "Only one of us can win this duel… and even though you're my friend, I'm not going to hold back. I'm going to give it my all—and what's more, I'm going to beat you!"

"Like hell," Ellen replied, folding her arms.

Nate was confused.

Ellen decided to simplify. "Face it, Nate, you're a terrible duelist! You only got this far because I've been telling you how to use magic all the time in school! I mean… come on. You probably don't remember why we're here."

"Sure I do," Nate snapped. "I entered because… duh… you told me to?"

"It was for Susan, you silly little boy," Ellen reminded him. "She needs to wake up."

"What, is she sick?" Nate asked.

"No, but you will be," Ellen replied. "EXPELLIARMUS!"

"Ah!" Nate yelled. He flew across the room.

Sorry, gotta go to commercial. We are very, very busy, you see?

_Your own wand: 12 sickles._

_A spanking new broomstick: 30 galleons._

_Bribing the school bully so he won't beat you up for being such a nerd: 50 galleons._

_Activating swords of revealing light so your opponent is unable to attack you, leaving him wide open for a frontal assault: priceless._

_There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Patel Corp._

We now return to the live feed from the Duelist Kingdom and it looks as though the last two contestants have something to say to each other.

Nate handed Ellen his lucky coin. "Hey, Ellen, since I lost, it's up to you to save Susan and the others from that evil guy."

Ellen took the lucky coin. "You know, I never saw you with a lucky coin before." She pointed out.

"That's because it isn't always lucky," Nate replied.

Ellen stared at him.

"But it might be this time! Go get that guy who is trying to take our magic even though that shouldn't be possible!" Nate cheered.

Don't touch that remote. We'll be right back with some more magic, right after this commercial.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18: Fair game… Fair Duel.**

"The final round of Duelist Kingdom will now commence. Will Ellen Russell now enter the duel arena?" The announcer announced.

This arena was bigger than most arenas. There were a lot of people filling the stands as well. Actually, they were just the friends whom Ellen brought along, plus Cassie. And there were a couple of the muggle workers as well.

Ellen felt nervous. She had never done anything so big without Susan before. They survived muggle school together. They survived a half a year of Salem University … Well, now it was time for Ellen to prove that she could save her friend, and all those kids, from this egomaniac.

"I'm bored," Nate stated.

"Hush, Nate." Jen said, "This crappy tournament will be over soon."

"Hey, Jen," Tessa turned to her, "Let's ditch Nate and Alana."

Jen shrugged. "…Okay."

Jen and Tessa left Nate and Alana at the benches overlooking Ellen's big duel with the boss guy.

"I can't believe they just ditched us like that," Alana told Nate, "I mean, you have to be a total jerk to walk out like that—hey, where are you going?" Nate had started walking away from Alana in the opposite direction of Jen and Tessa.

"I'm ditching you too, because you smell." Nate replied before vanishing from sight.

The man entered the stadium at the other end of Ellen's side.

"Excellent," the man said out loud, "Soon my plan to steal magic from a small child will be complete."

"You mean you arranged this whole tournament just to steal my magic?" Ellen asked.

"Exactly," the man replied.

Meanwhile, Nate decided to try on that suit of armor that we mentioned earlier. He enjoyed dressing up as a medieval knight. 'This heavy suit of armor is perfect for sneaking around…' Nate thought to himself.

Around the corner, there was a guard, just sitting on a chair against the wall. He was trying to relax because of his trying day, but he couldn't get any sleep because of an iron banging noise.

"Did I hear something just now?" the guard wondered to himself as he heard some metal clanging in the hallway. "Nah, must have been the wind… yeah, that's definitely the sound that wind makes."

Nate was hovering over the guard in his metal suit now. "My clumsiness gives me super strength!" He knocked the guard unconscious. "But it also help that I'm wearing a suit of armor." He looked around the small room and saw that Alina was in the prison cell. It was her body, not her soul, but whatever.

"Hey, it's Alina!" Nate pointed out. "If I rescue her, I'll be a hero!" he snatched the keys from the unconscious guard and inserted it in the key hole. "Score…"

Alana was looking at her Gaydar. It showed her a picture of where Nate was. 'Sounds like Nate found Alina! I think I'll pay him another visit!' Alana walked away from her seat. Jen, who had returned, saw her leave.

"Where do you think you're going, lime-y girl?" Jen demanded.

Alana stopped in her tracks, but did not turn around to face Jen. "Um… I have to go do British things… like drink cups of tea… and eat bangers and mash… that sort of thing… because I'm British."

"Oh okay." Jen rolled her eyes. She didn't want to get into this stuff anyway. She only hoped that Ellen could win.

Alana left the room.

Tessa pointed at the match. "Look, something exciting is happening!"

"Blah, blah, spells, blah," Ellen told the man.

"Blah, blah, blah, attack mode, blah," The man countered.

"Blah, blah, blah?" Ellen was shocked.

"Blah," The man settled.

"Oops," Tessa admitted, "my mistake."

Nate had Alina out, but Alina was unconscious since she had no soul. However, there was another problem. Another guard was blocking his path.

"Halt! You're surrounded!" The guard threatened. "Hand us the kid!"

"Over Alina's dead body!" Nate refused.

"Lay one finger on him and you mortals will regret the day you were ever born!" Alana cut in, threatening the guards.

"Alana!" Nate recognized her, "Don't be a hero! They have invisible guns!"

"And we're not afraid to use them!" The guard added.

Alana held up her wand and smiled wryly. She congratulated herself for finding her wand in the man's empty office. "Well I have something far more powerful than invisible guns."

"There's no such thing!" The guard stated.

Alana held her wand up. "Why don't you see for yourself then?" she waved her wand and ropes suddenly appeared around the guards, constricting them from doing anything.

"Well, what do you know? She was right." The guard replied, struggling with the ropes.

"Now I just feel silly," the other guard admitted.

Nate cheered. "Alana! I had no idea you were Spiderman!"

Alana sighed. "That's because I'm not. Now follow me—we have to get out of here."

Nate was crestfallen. "You mean… you're not Spiderman?"

"No, I'm not," Alana confirmed.

Nate started to whine, as if he were about to cry.

Alana groaned. "Alright, yes, I'm Spiderman. Happy? Now will you just follow me?" She led the way out of this dungeon.

"Hurray! I'm friends with Spiderman!" Nate cheered before running after her. Alina was still unconscious on his back, of course.

Nate was singing as he and Alana climbed a ridiculous number of stairs. "She is strong… listen bud… she has radioactive blood! Look out! Here comes the Spiderman!"

"Oh stop it!" Alana whined.

The man's upper lip curled. He was getting over confident. "You can't possibly win, mudblood. With my Millennium eye, I can see in to the recesses of your mind!"

Ellen thought about how horrible that was, and realized he could probably hear her.

The man cackled suddenly. "And now, I am going to take this duel to the Shadow Realm." Everything started to become a mysterious dark blue.

Alana and Nate were out of the dark tunnels now. Alana smiled. They were almost out! And they were just first years! Actually, they were just heading back to the benches…

Tessa and Jen watched the bluish purple clouds descend upon the dueling field. "I sense that Ellen is in great peril!" Tessa said.

"Me too!" Jen agreed, glancing at the malevolently dark clouds.

Alana and Nate showed up finally, carrying an unconscious Alina. "You'll never guess what we've been doing!" Nate told them.

"We don't care," Jen snapped.

The man grinned maniacally. "Your body won't survive in the Shadow Realm… it is far too mortal for your own good."

Ellen did in fact feel weak_. 'He's right… I can feel the shadow tearing my body apart, like I was watching a scary movie or something… spirit, you have to help me…'_

_She fell on the floor._

"HOLY CRAP!" Tessa yelled.

"Ah!" Jen yelled.

"I'm hungry!" Nate yelled.

"I felt a disturbance…" Jen told them, "As if Ellen suddenly called out in terror… and was silenced."

"She needs our help!" Tessa said, "Remember the friendship pact we made at the beginning of the year?" Sorry, reader, we didn't tell you about that one.

"How could we forget? It took me weeks to get that stuff off my hand." Nate remarked.

They put their hands together, as they had so many weeks before. Tessa felt it right to say something. "Ellen… wherever you are… we believe in you…"

"Never give up," Jen added. "No matter what happens."

"And could you possibly bring me something to eat?" Nate asked. Then quietly he added, "Maybe some French fried potatoes…"

Meanwhile, in the dueling dark shadow place, the man was apparently winning. This was his weird spell, after all. He gloated that he wouldn't have been able to do that without Susan's soul's help. "Poor girl… without your friends, your mind is an open book." The man told her. His golden eye started to glow in an effort to read Ellen's mind. "Now let's see what spell you're gonna cast…"

Suddenly, Jen, Tessa, and Nate appeared beside Ellen. (Alana was taking good care of Alina.)

Nate held Ellen in his arms.

"What in the name of Liberachi is going on?" the man snapped. "Ellen's friends! They're stopping me from reading her mind! This is inconceivable! Not to mention, extremely cheesy…"

Jen was angry. "You'll never understand the importance of friendship!"

"As long as Ellen has us, she'll always have the strength to fight!" Tessa added.

"I'm just here for the food," Nate said.

Ellen smiled at them, thankful. She got up, her wand raised before her. "And now I summon… cotton balls!" a bunch of cotton balls swarmed over the man.

"No!" the man cursed. "There's so many of them! I can't tell which one is the original!"

"That means you'll never be able to use magic ever again!" Ellen dictated her punishment. "And you'll have to let go of all the students, give back their powers… and release Susan and Sarita and Alina and Q!"

The man fell to his knees, defeated. "I lost…to a first year. No matter, you can't kill me. I'll probably only go to prison, where I can escape."

Jen shook her head. "Not if it's Azkaban." She pointed out.

Back to the castle now, Ellen woke up in Nate's arms, but in the hallway. "Ellen, you did it!" Nate congratulated his friend, "I mean, you really won! You really, really—"

"Yeah, thanks, Nate" Ellen quickly said. "Anyway, we should probably go…rescue Susan!"

Alana was on the balcony with Alina still. "Go ahead! I'll see if Alina finally awakes…or something!"

Ellen led the others away to wherever Susan's soul was being kept.


	19. Chapter 19

_Chapter 19: __**This book was originally filmed on position with the Salem Town police department**__._

_Ellen hurried back to that room with the giant picture of a woman. She figured she could have some time to gloat with the man, if at all possible._

_However, as soon as she got to the stairs, she saw four body guards coming down them. They had the man over their shoulders, unconscious._

"_Hey, guard," Ellen asked one of the black suited men, "What happened to that guy?"_

"_Mr. Man is ill," The guard gruffly replied._

"_He looks kind of dead," Ellen remarked at that._

"_Well, he's not." The guard stated. He stepped around Ellen, "Now excuse me, I have to go sandpaper my throat."_

_At this point, Jen, Nate, Cassie and Tessa caught up to Ellen._

"_I can't believe that guy is dead!" Jen exclaimed._

_Nate sighed. "He died as he lived—draped in the arms of another man…"_

"_Let's go snoop through his things," Tessa suggested. Everyone agreed, so they climbed the stone stairs to the man's room. That's where they decided to stare at the portrait of the woman for a long period of time._

"_Man, that is one person I'd like to meet," Nate remarked._

_Tessa called her friends over to Nefari's night stand. There was a leather bound book on it. "Look! It's his blog!" She opened the book and read aloud. "__January 12. Mood: fabulous. My Darling Cecilia, I still remember the first day we met. You were the second most beautiful person I'd ever laid eyes on. The first was me, of course. We fell in love instantly and decided to get married. Then, when we were standing at the alter, something very unexpected happened: You exploded. Yeah… That was kind of weird. In my grief, I took a trip to Egypt , because that's what people do when they're grieving—they go to Egypt . Little did I know, my destiny was waiting for me, right around the corner._

"_An Egyptian man approached me. 'My name is Shardi. We Egyptians no longer use slave to build pyramid. Now we make women do it instead. If you come with me, I will show you why I hang donuts from my ears.'_

"_I followed him to an Ancient Egyptian chamber filled with Ancient Egyptian artifacts. The Egyptian man spoke again, 'Jewish people are always trying to come in here and steal my Millennium Items! Since you are not Jew, I will give you this one; it will give you the power to see into people's minds. It is nice.'_

"_The Millennium Eye gave me the power to see into the world beyond. At long last, I was reunited with you, my love. I thought my dreams had finally come true. But then, you exploded again. You really need to stop doing that_." Tessa finished. She took a deep breath from the diary thing. "It says here that he figured out how to bring Cecilia back from the dead using some kind of stone… Man, I've read fanfics that make more sense than this crap."

Ellen pointed at three blank cards on the desk as well. "Look! The man must have released Susan's soul! This is super special awesome!"

Jen and Nate turned to leave the room and headed back down the stairs.

Tessa and Cassie quickly followed. Ellen took one last look around the room before running after her friends. When she reached the stairs, she was shocked. Looking down the stairs, she couldn't see Jen, Nate, or Tessa anywhere. She did see a guy who had a strange resemblance to Professor Vincent, only he was wearing old fashioned clothing that one might wear in ancient Egypt .

Ellen gaped in confusion.

"There has been a great disturbance," The Egyptian guy said without moving his lips, "Someone has defeated a huge force. It was probably this little girl." He stared fixedly at Ellen. "I will use my wand to probe her mind." He took out a long golden cross and set it to Ellen's forehead. That's a weird wand…

Ellen didn't object, though she did admit it was a little strange to have some guy climb up stairs and put a long golden cross to her head.

"Whoa-wee-whoa-wee-whoa." The Egyptian stated, "The Jew's mind has been separated into two different chambers. One looks like it belongs to a normal kid… This other room is very mysterious… it gives me funny feeling in my ihram." 

"Who the devil are you supposed to be?" Ellen thought, trying to shove this guy out of her mind. She was already freaked out by his resemblance to Professor Vincent.

"My name is Shardi. I am here to persecute those who would steal my Millennium Item," Shardi answered.

"Um…" Ellen responded, "Okay..."

"I like you." Shardi told her. "Do you like me?""No." Ellen replied curtly. "Look, I didn't steal anything. But if it will set your mind at ease, then have a look around. By the way, have you ever seen Labyrinth?" In this dark section of Ellen's mind it was suddenly lit up, showing several doorways and stairs that led to nowhere, and seemingly endless corridors.

"No. Why?" Shardi asked.

Ellen shrugged. "No reason."

And with that, Shardi explored her mind. And then he decided that there was no where more dangerous than Ellen's mind. After opening the kazillionth mystery door, Shardi fell and nearly plunged into a bottomless pit. The only thing that stopped him was Ellen herself, who had grabbed Shardi's hand at the last minute.

"Don't worry, I'll save you," She told him.

Shardi looked up. He thought, 'This little girl has saved me. Perhaps she is not as Jewish as I thought…'

So Ellen saved Shardi and together they walked the corridors of her mind. She didn't really remember having such a big mind, but was fascinated by all this weird stuff that was happening.

Shardi and Ellen walked down a hallway of really big stone tablets, all of which had a different writings on them. Ellen asked, "Why are you here? Why can't I go get my friend?""Long ago," Shardi started, "Some powerful wizards did in fact explore Egypt . I was one of them. I am in your mind because I felt one of the evil doers, who stole a magical power, give up his power."

Ellen blinked. "Yeah, that was that man, since I defeated him."

Shardi stared. "You did? But…you are merely a first year. No one can produce such powerful magic except…"

"Except what?" Ellen probed.

Shardi shook his head. "I cannot say. You will learn in due course. It is time for us to part, Ellen Russell. Go find your friends. And please, keep an eye on my descendent."

"Who would that be?" Ellen asked.

Shardi smiled mysteriously. "Who do you think?" Well, he did look like Professor Vincent… Wow. Ellen had no idea.

And with that, Shardi withdrew from Ellen's mind. Ellen blinked a couple times to be sure that she was in the real world, and not… in her own mind.

"I apologize for screwing with your head," Shardi apologized. "It turns out you are the chosen one. Now I must return to Egypt , even though I have not found the one who stole my item. Good bye, and good luck." And with that, Shardi disappeared through some portal or another.

Ellen yawned. She was really tired.

Alana tried to shake Alina awake. She was lying on the ground still, right by the balcony they had watched the duel on. She figured it would be time for her to wake up since the man released all the captured souls. "Alina! Can you hear me?" Alana shouted. "Wake up!"

Alina's eyes flickered open. As her vision came into focus, she saw Alana hunched over her. "Who the hell are you? Are you the angel of death?" Alana didn't find that , Jen, Nate, Cassie, and Tessa had joined them at this point. Cassie remarked upon arrival, "Aw, isn't that cute? Alina thinks she's dead."

The gruffly voiced guard came back to address Ellen now. "Ellen Russell, you are now the victor of a great battle." The gruffly voiced guard continued, "You each have five minutes to get out of the forest before we release the hounds." And with that, he turned and walked away.

The group headed outside pretty quickly at that. When Alina got outside, she decided to call out, "Sarita! Where are you?"

"Oh face it, kid," Ellen commented, "Sarita never liked you."

At that moment, Sarita appeared at the front gate. The gates swung open to show her looking all epic and everything.

"Sarita! You're here!" Alina called, "And you're smiling!" She rushed to embrace her friend. "Stop smiling! It's really creepy!"

"Sarita's smiling!" Tessa added, "That's the most disturbing thing I've ever seen!"

Ellen shook her head sadly. "Whenever Sarita smiles, a puppy dies."

Sarita addressed Ellen. "Ellen… Because of the circumstances, our last duel was hardly fair. Maybe next time we can duel again to see who the better wizard is truly."

Ellen blinked. "In case you hadn't noticed, I beat the evil dude. And besides, I already beat you in class.""What's your point?" Sarita demanded.

"My point is you're never going to beat me. So just get over it." Ellen stated.

Sarita narrowed her eyes. "I hate you so much…" Cassie soon found her friend Amanda Hale, who for once didn't make fun of Ellen at all. It was amazing.

In fact, a bunch of students started to appear around the castle. They were coming back to this world! Including Q, who Jen hugged desperately, since she missed him so much. It was a happy ending.

Tessa interrupted Ellen's thoughts now. "I just realized something. Now that the evil's over, we have to go back to school!""Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Nate screamed.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20: The End

"Susan!" Nate, Tessa, and Ellen exclaimed when they finally came back to the school. She was up and moving…but same with all the teachers. Okay, just Professor Ditch, Professor Vincent and Professor Myles.

"You guys!" Susan laughed, opening her arms to greet her friends.

Tessa couldn't help but cry. "It's so emotional," She sobbed and laughed at that. They were all feeling the love tonight.

"You don't blame me for everything that happened, do you?" Ellen asked Susan.

Susan took a deep breath and replied... "Yes."

Ellen sighed. Yeah, she figured that. Susan laughed at that.

"It looks like I have my students back," Professor Ditch said calmly while the four of them gathered for a group hug.

"What do we do, Tim?" Professor Myles asked, eying the four first years with suspicion. "It's against the rules to go into the Forbidden Forest alone…"

Ellen's heart leapt. She had forgotten she was breaking a crap load of rules while going out to save her friends.

Professor Ditch's blue eyes twinkled. "They broke many rules… put themselves in danger… made their parents and more worried…"

Ellen flinched. Here it comes. Here it comes…

"Saved the student population, found the culprit, put him back in his place…" Hey, this didn't sound like scolding, "And saved Salem University of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Susan was amazed at their luck. Even though she didn't have anything to dowith the rescue, she could hardly believe that her friends weren't expelled. They were being… commended.

Ellen was eying Professor Vincent with curiosity. He did look a lot like Shardi… Who exactly was he, and how did he have ancestors running about the real world? She looked away as soon as Professor Vincent's dark eyes met hers. Wouldn't want him to know about her experience…

"I think some house points are in order… for bravery above all else." Professor Ditch ended. "And I would hope you would tell me before acting against the American government again…"

"Of course, sir…" Ellen was the only one to whisper something. And with that, the three teachers walked out of the hospital wing.

Nate, Tessa, Susan, and Ellen exchanged looks of relief. Whew!

Tessa whispered something in Susan's ear. She laughed and said, "Really? Tell me all about that!" The two of them walked back to the Earth Dorm.

"That was one wild adventure." Nate commented to Ellen.

"Yeah," Ellen agreed.

"We should do it again next year," Nate laughed, as the two of them walked back to the Water Dorm.

Before long, finals had rolled around. As expected, Ellen panicked for them for a long time, then got perfect scores on all of them.

Susan was vaguely worried for her finals, then got almost perfect scores. Tessa and Nate just got okay grades.

On the night of the going away feast, Susan decided to attend dinner since it was the going away feast. There was a lot of chatter, along with Water Dorm decorations all over.

Apparently, Ellen's Dorm had won the House cup. And they had won the Quidditch cup. Just how was this fun for Susan?

Anyway, most of the students were saying good bye to friends and were also giving out addresses to stay in contact. Addresses for owls of course, seeing as none of the students were stalkers… Susan surprised herself by attending breakfast as well. What was more surprising was the recognizable Thieme family owl flying in right toward her. It swooped down and… crashed into the mash potatoes.

Tessa laughed. "Sue, I like mash potatoes too, but I don't think owls should. When are your parents gonna get a new one? One that at least knows how to land."

Susan just laughed and stated, "If I knew that my mom would use this crazy little owl I would have bought her a new one long time ago. But I do love Shadow… she's just old. but even when I was younger she never could land. You know that, Tess."

When Susan opened the letter, her face turned a ghostly white. 'Oh no my mom knows'... She reread the letter and thought, 'good she is at least letting Ellen stay for part of the summer but I am going to be in serious trouble… I could always state it wasn't my fault and play the whole I'm innocent…'

Tessa read the neat handwriting of the letter as well. Of course, she burst out laughing at the look on Susan's face. Knowing that Susan was in some serious trouble was always a hilarious subject.

Ellen looked over at the Earth dorm and notice Susan writing something. Curious… and then she tied it to the owl's foot before sending the owl over to her with the letter. Ellen rolled her eyes. She couldn't have just walked over here?

Oh well. Mind as well read whatever Susan was too lazy to talk about…

Ellen,

_Mom said it would be fine to come over on August 2__nd__ only because my grandparents are coming to visit… along with the Potters. (Someone please kill me now) So hope to see you then. Also my mom found out about our little adventure and now I am grounded for a few days. YOU OWE ME. _

_Can't wait to see what your parents say._

_So I guess I will see ya in August._

Sue of Earth Dorm.

Ellen nodded over to Susan while noticing that Tessa was talking about something quickly by the looks of her hands were flying around. Susan nodded and to whatever Tessa was saying.

Later, on the train, Susan, Tessa, Ellen, and Nate found a compartment and packed all their things into it. Ellen noticed she had considerably more items than she had before. She tried to stuff Fawkes's cage on the top, and then decided to let the phoenix out of his cage. He never really ran away anyway.

Nate said excitedly, "I'm so glad that I get to see Neville Longbottom again. It's been awhile."

Susan groaned. "If you want you can take the Potters along with you, I wouldn't mind. It will be better then listening to his annoying kids run about me and repeat all the time how great their dad is… as if Voldemort was the only villain in this world…"

Tessa knew what Susan meant, even if Ellen and Nate gave her confused looks. Susan told her almost everyday when they were smaller that she despised Harry Potter since he saved her from the vampires after she was bitten. Tessa wasn't too clear on why, but she couldn't blame Susan. They were best friends, and she was gonna stick up for her friend no matter what.

When they made it to the platform in New London , Susan found her dad waiting for her. She grinned and ran over to him, all the while shouting a good bye to her friends. He was on Westpac when she was at school, so it was natural he would pick her up at the train station.

He picked her up and spin her around as he said, "From the letters I guess you had a good year."

Susan just said, "You wouldn't believe it if I told you."


End file.
